I've heard people say this tree is amazing, but the Dredmorpedia description of the abilities don;t make them sound like they scale terribly well....then again, I thought the same thing about Charge of the Steam Brigade and boy was I wrong. Just curious as to what abilitiy, or abilities, are the keys to this tree and how well they scale at endgame.
well, so far, I've only gotten to about lvl3 of Rogue Scientist. I can say that the Blaster you get at level 2 is pretty damn handy. Hurts them, and pushes them back. The acid field at level 3 isn't so wonderful, it's short range and short lived, but it IS AOE. The gizmos also get more powerful if you have the corresponding "synergy" skill - for the Blaster it's tinkering, for the acid sprayer it's Alchemy . . . further on I think there's one for Wand Lore . . . . (not sure) . . . Still, yeah, so far, for me, it's a nice class. Can't tell you about endgame, but the abilities/gizmo's scale . . . . .or say they do.
Not to mention the Toxin Canister. It's a great ability to use on large clusters of monsters or monster zoos, but it has another property, it can destroy walls. Which means you can use it to enter secret rooms. Also the second to last ability, the Baromatic Vortex Upgrade, is also a great tool to further help in generating knockback and AoE.
The higher level skills are "if you can see it, you can kill it, along with everything standing in between". I found the acid spray to be very effective with just two points in alchemy, plus it can go through/under doors - handy (in the pre-monster-awareness-cones bugginess days) if one could shut the door on a just-opened zoo, then just repeatedly acid spray as they queued up to wait for you.
Toxin canister. Also, with the Alchemist ooze you get when you kill a enemy you can create brimstone flasks.
I also heard on the IRC that Rogue Scientist actually gives you levels in Tinkering, Alchemy, and possibly other crafting skills. You don't gain the classes, no -just levels of ability. Now that is pretty darn nice (if correct). Edited.
^^^Unfortunately, I don't think Rogue Scientist gives enough for brimstone flasks. If you have alchemy the ooze helps with them, though.
2 means you can make healing and mana potions and 2 means you can make sonic wands which prevent dredmor from casting. That your endgame right there. Without actually having to take alchemy or wandcrafting.
You are right Giygas but if you are going to master the Rogue Scientist Skill three, you just need to level up two more levels on Alchemist for the brimstone flasks. So instead of four, you just take two. Plus healing potions and all that stuff.
Alternatively, you can use the Diggle God of Secrets. I only ever take Alchemy for the healing pots though
Rogue Scientist is amazing early on, less so later on. Aetheric death ray isn't worth the skillpoint, but up until that point everything you buy is quite nice. Essentially you get heavily damaging timeout abilities up the wazoo with this skill, which gives you a way to not get squished if you run out of mana.
Rogue Scientist is amazing with Tinkering and/or Alchemy. Lets look at the damage of Alchemical Toxin Canister: 1 (+ 0.5 ×) 1 (+ 0.5 ×) 1 (+ 0.5 ×) 1 (+ 0.5 ×) in a huge AOE for 12 turns. Even just with rogue scientist this does 8 damage a turn for 12 turns (76 damage). Throwing this into a room and closing the door will clear rooms for most the game. Add in 6 more and this does 20 damage a turn for 12 turns (240 damage). This will clear the room on almost any floor of the game with few exceptions. Lets look at Baromatic Vortex Upgrade: Mega Sonic Beam: 20 0 (+ 0.34 × ) 0 (+ 5 × ) 0 (+ 5 × ) Daze and unresistable Knockback Mega Sonic Boom: 4 (+ 0.34 × ) 0 (+ 6 × ) then in an AOE 4 (+ 0.34 × ) 0 (+ 6 × ) knockback With 8 Tinkering and decent this skill deals brutal damage. It can kill most floor 11-15 enemies. This even does damage to Dreadmor with 8 Tinkering. Then there is more with the tree. Thaumomechnical Rebreather gives a free hat which is pretty great. Clockwork Reflexes gives a 20% on counter to get an extra free melee hit to every monster around you. Baromatic Pulse Device will kill enemies in 1 hit for the first 3 floors even with no tinkering. Acidical Projector gives which really helps at the start of the game Chemic Pilferer gives and gives Alchemical Ooze which can make useful stuff.
Good thing I have 12 tinkering (aka, beam does 140 and boom does 152 at the center excluding ... the damage is so high I think I calculated wrong) Who thinks I should wear tinkerer goggles? Overkill?
