Your Favorite Post-CotW Builds

You're also forgetting the Lockdown and Stealth abilities. This allows you a lot more occasions to go Invisible as well as having a means of immobilizing movement. Furthermore, just having the Lockpicks is very handy, especially since some of the really good loot in the Wizardlands can come from chests.

But now allow me to ask a question. I'm a little in the dark when it comes to how good Communism actually is. What's the secret?

 

Clockwork Knight has really bad escape skills. Also, I take Clockwork Knight only for the rocket skill. The rest is pretty much unnecessary. Trap removal doesn't have to be boosted that much by burglary because Archeology has a lot of it. Also, the lots of Nimbleness are better on a rogue-based skillset, because it boosts sneakiness, dodge and EDR a lot.

You'd be surprised how many softballs you can yoink from throwing vendors aswell. Since the skillset is based on archeology a lot you can just get a lutefisk cube and make all the stacked stuff with low value into lutefisk and get more artifacts.

 

Don't suppose anyone has a favorite post-CotW archery build to share?

(other than Master Shizzle?)

 

So you've never had 15 blasting resist and 5 fire resist? (hint: the skill gives you a buff with 8 blast resist, and some of the recepies it provides have blast resist on the gear). Even with less resist than that, you reach a point where the self damage is negligable.

Rocket jump becomes both an excellent escape skill, and a damage skill. Lure enemies close, jump away, and hit them with the exhaust, especially if you have tinkering.

Clockwork threshing while low chance of procing is awesome.

The capstone is excellent for zoos, sure it seems suicidal, but it's not really that bad. And it buffs you even more, so go ahead and rocket jump if you want/need to.

 

Yeah, as stated above with the right resists and the defensive buff up you really take very little damage from rocket jump. I used it tons on my CK run.

That being said, CK is a great tree with max points in it....or with just one. A single point gives the amazing rocket punch, and you get free scrap metal all game long to fuel crafting.

 

Right now I'm experimenting with a new build, so far it's turning out REALLY good!

It's a 3/2/2 spread with 4 crafting trees used in it, and I think late game it'll be quite broken thanks to Magical Law XD

Seriously, such an amazing skill tree. everything in it is relevant all the way to the end of the game.

 

Egyptian Magic
Blood Magic
Leywalker
Tourist
-insert any other three mage skills here-
:')

 

Finally did a run without exploiting known bugs or consulting the forum/wiki.

Archery
Fleshsmithing
Bloodmage
Killer Vegan
Tinkering
Smithing
Clockwork Knight

I was exploring the entire floor until level 12. Once I got to level 12 the monsters seemed to be pretty much the same difficulty all the way down (I think this has been addressed before, but the difficulty of monsters versus the types of drops on the last 5 floors could have a bit more personality) so I went straight for Dredmor. Ended up taking him out with fire bolts.

 

Rocket Jump. Granted it's a dangerous escape skill, but who said Her Majesty's Clockwork Service was a safe job?

 

Indeed. Plus, when you get regen/resist high enough, it's easier to let the enemies crowd around you before rocketing.

Went back to my game to check out Diggle Hell. That's hilarious.

I have to say, Vlad is worse than Dredmor for a very simple reason - I had to fight him twice. Stun with rocket fists then use an artifact bolt erupter encrusted twice for holy damage. When he gets close, rocket jump away. He got me below half hp, but as long as you can distance yourself from him, you should be ok.

 

Rogue Scientist
Alchemy
Tinkering
Clockwork Knight
Wand Lore
Perception
Unarmed

Breezed through DL1 GR, any guesses as to how well this is gonna hold up as time goes on?

 

That sounds like fun, you should be good to go.

I ended up doing a slightly modified build from my previous post, in a similar category:

• Unarmed
• Archery
• Smithing
• Tinkering
• Archaeology
• Burglary
• Paranormal Investigator

Right now I just set foot onto level 9 on GRPD, and I'm curb-stomping everything to bits. Over 1,000 Ingeniously Scythed bolts, 38, got my equipment pretty much set and now I'm working on getting odd material for encrusts and the Mirror Darkly Shield (pearls, where ARE YOU?!? Gah!). My bauble'd Bolt Eruptor and encrusted Clockwork (Everything) are making this a breeze. Cleared out a double Monster Zoo on level 8, and I took maybe 30 damage total. Looks like a winner, FEELS like a winner.

I didn't even notice the +1 to Alchemy that PI gives you until this last level. I could have also had a couple-hundred healing potions by now if I had been paying attention.

 

I'm using

1: Burglary
2: Smithing
3: Tinkering
4: Clockwork Knight
5: Battle Geology
6: Communism
7: Steam Powered Squire (A Mod skill, but not that powerful. Got it off Steam Workshop.)

Battle Geology gives me A Ranged/Melee (I use seismic Uppercut for Melee as it gives me a free attack) stun, A massive AOE stun/damage/Wall Destroyer, and the most overpowered of all, Plutonic Fist means that enemies that I attack can't retaliate or get crits. Guerilla attack gives me a free hit, Rocket Powered punch gives me another stun, Steam powered squire gives me an ability which acts like clockwork grappling bolts once per 25 turns. Petrification is a nice disable (Or defence, if I get hit by a really powerful DOT), Rocket Jump gives me an escape, and clockwork threshing gives me even more extra attacks. This build works by stunning the enemy, and then pounding on them while they can't fight back. You don't get hit at all.

Smithing, Tinkering, and Burglary are just a luxury, Giving me free unlocks for chests and doors, extra equipment, and making traps just free XP.

Currently farming Diggle hell, at level 15.

 

DUUUDE, I had like the same build when I beat dredmor for the first time!

I used Smithing, tinkering, Alchemy, Clockwork Knight, Battle Geology, Magical Law, and Shields.

Maxed Clockwork Knight and Magical Law for the sweet combo with their two capstones. like rocket jumping on steroids X_X

if I replaced Shields with Blood magic it would have been a self-sustaining combo, but I was going for the whole maxing block thing.

the extra stun from battle geology was always amazing ^_^ always saved my butt.

 

I should try that. Although my build relies on maxing geo with some side skills (for the stuns) so you can start attempting Diggle hell for Max star equipment and XP at around level 10-15 (This is the hardest part, and one of the reasons is that you don't have the resistances to do this quite yet, putting a bit of luck into it until you've beaten a few of them). Once I'm level 18 or so I think I may be able to kill vlad diggula, but I'll have to find him again.

Edit: Wait, you're not replying to me XD. I still should try that build.

 

I'm off an on. I didn't really touch diggle hell until I was surviving on floor 10. I didn't want to risk dying for over estimating my abilities. still though, good to know.

I would hold off on vlad digula, he's really tough, like you wouldn't believe X_X. I was level 26 and he almost killed me.

 

Communism
Piracy
Clockwork Knight
Smithing
Tinkering
Perception
Dualwielding

Communism is outstanding. Great for getting out of a bind on the first level, and you start with 2 weapons, which works nicely with dualwielding.

Piracy's late skills aren't much worth it, but Swashbuckling and Mists of the Corsair work ridiculously well with the Clockwork Knight's suicidal mobility. Black Dot works well against really tough enemies late game, if you're lacking crit.

Clockwork Knight's Tech Scavenge is nice by itself, but the skill really shines with mobility and damage. With enough fire/blast resistance(Neither of which are that hard to come by), you can hop around quite a bit.

One of my favorite methods of dealing with zoos is to use the Clockwork capstone to get into the fight, then activate swashbuckling if anything is still alive when I land. The counters and proc from the Clockwork capstone, combined with the sheer damage of two weapons really clears a room. If things get hairy, I jump out of the crowd using the other clockwork knight ability, hit Mists of the Corsair, and run to recover.

Other than that, I love crossbows and bolts. I try to get a hold of some of the more powerful crossbows early on to deal with runners or powerful enemies at a distance. Clockwork Knight and Perception at high levels will feed you enough material to keep the bolts flying, especially when dealing with monster zoos. It's also an easy place to pick up AOE/floor damage without being suicidal. (Bolt Erruptor/Eldritch Crossbow + AOE bolts = Lots of AOE damage) The Clockwork Rail Crossbow is also pretty insane with high tinkering.


Not really sure how I'm going to deal with high magic damage. I have virtually no defense against it.


If you use Roguish Rennovation(Mod) like I do, you can skip Smithing entirely and craft Soulcraft and Advanced Soulcraft books instead, thanks to the stash of gems you get from Plunder, and you should still have enough skill from Clockwork Knight to get started early on.

Roguish Rennovation also includes Tinkertoy Bolts, which deal damage based off of your tinkering ability.

 

I reason I think I may be able to do it is basically, I can stunlock him for around 20 turns (Bit less, I exaggerate), if luck is on my side. And burglary gives me ninja vanish, lockup and move in mysterious ways, which means he can't catch my melee character while my skills are recharging. I have got enough damage to get through his resistances, too. I still need to find him, though.

Really need some more defence, as my plutonic fist isn't quite enough to remove his counter chance.

 

The build I'm currently playing -- The Master Crafter

• Clockwork Knight
• Rogue Scientist
• Smithing
• Tinkering
• Alchemy
• Paranormal Investigator
• Perception

When starting out, get a single level of CK and four levels of Smithing; doing this allows you to craft enough armour to survive the early levels. Because this is a craft-heavy build, get as many recipes as possible by getting Alien Autopsy asap.
After that, you're more or less free to choose where you go from there. Get more levels in CK for more damage output, levels Tinkering for more crafting options and trap affinity, RS and alchemy for mass destruction and perception to get more components to craft with.

 

This character just killed Dred on GRPD, easy stuff. Found an Eldritch Crossbow in a Dwarven mail room that gave 20, then bauble'd it twice to get 30 10. Dredmor went down with nothing but a Sonic Wand and some Clockwork Drill Bombs. Probably took less than 80 turns.

So... yeah. This is a decent build for Archery, though it gets really powerful really quickly and gets really boring immediately afterward. I was sitting on more than 1,500 unused bolts by the end of this. By floor 12 I was just 'fisking everything in sight and looking for the stairs down.