Share your Builds

Okay, this clears things up, thank you. So it seems like AA "double dips" (more like triple dips) when it comes to mitigating damage, interesting.

 

Mad Scientist

• Rogue Scientist
• Tinkering
• Alchemy
• Clockwork Knight
• Necrolyzing Aspirant
• Jack of all Trades
• Magical Law

The basic idea of the build is to pump and and make the rogue scientist skill tree do ridiculous amounts of damage.With 12 Your Alchemical Toxin Canister deals 28 damage a turn for 12 turns. With 12 your Baromatic Vortex Upgrade does over 300 damage. Magical Law reset cool downs. Also there are massive amounts of free exotic resist in this build.

 

I'm currently running a zero crafting rogue-ish melee build as follows:

Bankster (yes, even though Bailout is bugged)
Assassination (free stuns? Yes please.)
Dual Wield (huge boost to damage with zero investment)
Fungal Arts (incredible tree, endless consumables, pets to dump Bankster debuffs on in a pinch)
Fleshsmithing (best heal in the game, need some sort of mana dump)
Piracy (a few turns of auto-countering is ridic good, Black Spot vs elites is pro too)
Daggers (the first point is good, and the defensive stance is incredible)

Bankster is a fairly broken tree. If you don't manage debuffs properly it will wreck you (if only Bailout worked), but with smart play you'll have huge cash reserves and can keep up the half damage buff 100% of the time. The half damage buff *makes* the entire build work. Lack of defensive gear due to no crafting? Who cares, you take half damage..and you counter/block most things anyways. In a pinch you go invis and heal via shrooms, and spot heal yourself with Knit Flesh.

Currently on floor 10 and cruising.

 

If true, this makes the Thrown weapon skills pretty useless - because they add to your thrown attacks, while most thrown weapons deal !

 

Huh I was like 100% sure you add to the highest of the three you had and that took the highest and reduce that and then the next one until it ran out.

 

The Clockworker

• Maces
• Shield Bearer
• Master of Arms
• Smithing
• Tinkering
• Clockwork Knight
• Battle Geology

And for the equipment to fit the concept:

• Clockwork Thunderclap
• Clockwork Deflector
• Clockwork Rail Launcher
• Imperial Clockwork Helm
• Imperial Clockwork Plate
• Clockwork Gauntlets
• Overclockedwork Power-limb x 2
• Clockwork Regulator Belt
• Clockwork Actuators
• Rocket Boots

 

A build I'm throwing around in my head:

• Unarmed
• Shield Bearer
• Smithing
• Tinkering
• Clockwork Knight
• Magical Law
• Alchemy

Still thinking about it. Maybe replacing Magical Law or Alchemy with Burglary or something for a little more Melee Damage (Communism? Killer Vegan? I dunno).

 

Here is my current build, including the current levels in each skill. I'm currently at level 24 and just about ready to go down to level 10 of the dungeon (playing on Dwarvish Moderation):

• Macery: maxed out
• Crossbow: maxed out
• Dual Wielding: maxed out
• Berskerer Rage: 3 (Ancestral Body Paint)
• Master of Arms: 1 (Thick Skin)
• Archaeology: maxed out
• Smithing: 5 (Chosen of Krong)

I am relatively new to DoD (have only been playing about a month now, maybe a little longer?), so any comments are welcome. I'm starting to question the wisdom of Master of Arms. I've taken it on a number of characters because it seemed like the thing to do. While the Suit Up power is useful and you can pretty much keep it going all the time, the tree as a whole seems a little suspect. On this run, for example, I haven't invested a single point in it yet, and if I gain another level that skill point is going into Berserker Rage.

I'm also wondering about Crossbows, even though I did max out this tree on this run. It's nice to have, but with Macery and Dual Wielding my character is such a melee powerhouse that I would say I rarely ever really need it. Bolts of Squid and Mass Destruction are awesome, but you don't really need any crossbow skills for that. You don't even need a really good crossbow--any delivery system will do. I really only chose this tree for Dredmor, so I could snipe at him from a distance, but I'm wondering if having it is worth it.

The other skills are all solid, I think. I love the Macery tree, and generally try to level up to Ragnar's Meteor as soon as possible (good for pushing back rows of enemies, knocking down walls and bars, and knocking artifacts off of islands). Dual Wielding is also a favorite. The two non-combat skills, Archaeology and Smithing, are fairly indispensable to this build. I think I had a Flail of Pleiades when I was on the fourth level of the dungeon on this run (and a second later on), and I always make sure to craft an Emerald Encrusted Gold Ring for that regeneration as soon as I can. And I just love crafting my own stuff. As for Archaeology, well, every character I've created has had Archaeology, so it might be my single most favorite skill. It Belongs In A Museum has earned me so many levels--you find so many useless artifacts and I generally end up with more gold than I know what to do with, so it's nice to be able to turn all that into experience. The only other skill in that tree I use is Ancient Kronian Ritual, which is awesome. It is the last skill in the tree, but I think you actually benefit from it more later in the game, when you have better equipment that you're more likely to keep, so I will generally put a point in early to get IBIAM and then slowly work my way toward AKR once I have a solid foundation in the basic survival skills.

Finally, Berserker Rage seems to have a nice synergy with melee builds. For most of the tree you don't have to activate anything to make it work, which is nice. You also get good combat bonuses without having to manage magic (as with Viking Wizardry, which I have taken in previous builds but abandoned here because I decided I was just going to ignore mana entirely, which freed me up to use heavier armor).

Um... that was a bit long-winded. Sorry. Again, I welcome any and all comments, especially concerning what skills might best replace Master of Arms and possibly Crossbows as well. I'm thinking Burglary, maybe: I had a "hobbit" build once with Burglary and I remember all of the abilities coming in handy, with the exception of Lockup, which I never could get to work.

 

Crossbow is a terrible skill. Not worth the effort at all. You have no healing at all which is a MAJOR problem. I would replace this with either fleshsmithing, alchemy, or communism.I would pick communism just because it slightly more fun to play as.

Master of Arms is pretty decent on the 3rd skill. It gives the 10 combined with the suit 4 or an emerald ring you get 1 hp per turn in going rogue. If you aren't playing going rogue shield bearer is unquestionably better (all of its skill work without a shield). To be honest I would replace it with Clockwork Knight.The 2nd clockwork knight skill is amazing and is basically single target Ragnar's Meteor.

Berserker rage is a decent skill but I don't think it is helping your build much. The main draw is the huge amount of it gives. But your build already a ton of extra and smithing to give you more. I would either replace it with either: demonology( for mini berserker rage and celestial circle), battle geology, piracy, perception (for more ignots), or burglary.

Also if you get bored of Maces, polearm also do a ton of great knockback. The defense stance does knockback any time something hit you or you hit them. And the capstone does an even bigger AOE knockback and does more damage than c

Edit: For the record I would tell you to play as

• Mace
• Communism
• Clockwork Knight
• Archaeology
• Dual Wield
• Smithing
• Battle Geology

I think it will be more fun for you because you aren't just meleeing until Ragnar's Meteor.

Clockwork Knight has plenty of deadly abilities to for you to use. Just watch out for that rocket jump its damage scales with your , you need to have to lower the damage it does to you. Oh man, that first time you use Charge of the Steam Brigade is such a great moment.

Battle Geology hits hard and is very defensive. That 3rd skill is very similar to clockwork knight 2nd skill (also both deal double damage if you use it on a monster in melee range). With both of those skills no single monster with be a threat to you until dreadmor. Petrifaction lets you block off small pathways to give you time to heal. Earthquake debuffs, stuns, and damages in a huge AOE, it can hit a whole zoo's worth of monsters.

Communism lets to turn invisible, heal, cure debuffs and gives a great amount of passive stats. General Winter work wonderfully for about half the game. The capstone is a big let down so don't bother with it.

 

Wow, thanks for the tips!

I should mention that I don't have either the RotDG or CotW packs, so Demonology, Piracy, and Communism are out. I have been eyeing Clockwork Knight, though, and in my current run I've been using a lot of clockwork equipment. If I go that route, though, I would probably want to take Tinkering in addition to Smithing, no?

I'll have to look at some of the other skills, like Battle Geology in particular. I think I will probably shy away from Fleshsmithing, despite it's healing and regeneration, simply because I don't want to have to worry about my mana. Using clockwork equipment I generally end up with mana regen well into the negatives.

Off the top of my head, I might replace Crossbow, Master of Arms, and Berserker with Clockwork Knight, Battle Geology, and Burglary (sticking with the core of Mace, Dual Wielding, Archaeology, and Smithing), if it is possible to get away without Tinkering while playing a Clockwork Knight.

 

Hello, first post! Not exactly sharing since I want to comment on my results with a build suggested by some users on another topic, but since I can't find it I'll try here. Just finished the game on GRPD with the following build:

Sword
Dual Wield
Piracy
Archaeology
Burglary
Big Game Hunter
Smithing

The first six skills were suggested by the aformentioned user, introducing Smithing was my idea, mainly to try some crafting after finishing the game with builds without any crafting skills. It helped me for quite a bit, and even if I stopped crafting around floor 10 the passive bonus were still quite useful. The XP Trio Archeology/Burglary/Big Game Hunter was maybe excessive, but burglary actualy started saving my ass a lot of times since floor 9, since teleport was the only way to survive AoE persistent attacks - I loathe the gremlins - and invisibility was quite useful betwenn lichesses, diggle archmages, witch head and the likes. Big Game Hunter, and in the end probably even smithing, could surely be replaced by something more useful, but the truth is that a counterattack build is made by Swords, Dual Wield and Piracy and all the rest is gravy. Those skills and counterattacking oriented equips made me invincible by all practical means in any phisical confrontantion, and on floor without gremlins or lichesses I could do the zoos with ease.

I meleed Dredmor, like actually any confrontation of mine with him. I think that, while he is surely stroong, the fear of his melee prowess his quite exaggerated. The corruption effect is quite irrilevant at that point, and with some serious debuff and mark of the black spot I don't think that any of his attacks touched me. Defeating him consisted basically in:

1) Sound wand to Daze him
2) Mark of the Black Spot
3) Starting hitting him, fleshbore through Diggle God of Melee - couldn't find Piercing - consistently doing around 150 damages thanks to enchanted monofilament sword and emerald sword. Dead in around 5 attacks.

Daze and Mark of the Black Spot destroy his block chances, and if you put Fleshbore in the mix you can expect to do full damage with every attack. At that point, his resistances are really not in question, when you inflict around 120 slash damages and 50 piercing with every attack.

I was happy to see, after two mainly defensive builds, that it's possible to melee him going all offensive. The build was, generally speaking, a blast, and I had a lot of fun playing for all the dungeon. The build showed his limits only against room fulls of caster type enemies or, even worst, gremlin, lichesses and ghosts with cloud-type attacks. That said, I think that it's easily fixable. Removing BGH and Smithing leave place for excellent skills like clockwork knight - more teleport, long range, AoE - and maybe something like Emomancy - the Mark and the anti magic field - or Magical Law - a lot of utility, gag order. But, in general, I think that any build with Swords, Dual Wield and Piracy can potentially be a blast and finish the game.

 

The Paladin

• Polearms
• Shield Bearer
• Master of Arms
• Smithing
• Killer Vegan
• Demonologist
• Warlockery

And for the equipment to fit the concept:

• Spear of Holy Sacrifice
• Mirror Shield
• Sir Albrecht's Helm
• Embossed Serpentine Platemail
• Embossed Serpentine Gauntlets
• Belt of Champions
• Pants of Serpentine Plates
• Serpentine Sabatons

 

You can definite got clockwork Knight without Tinkering. It will take you much longer to get your clockwork equipment but around floor 8 and below you'll start seeing them laying around. At the very least just keep making tin rings (you can museum them!) until you find a decent one.

You don't need to worry too much about for demonology or fleshsmithing. The amount of mana you will end up using can be replace with booze.

One last thing if possible I would totally recommend getting the new expansion packs. They add in tons of new monsters, weapons, and skills. Then they allow you to use all the mods which at that point you can more than double the amount of content in the game.

 

Here is an interesting build I ran across when playing random builds but slightly modified:

Swords
Daggers
Dual Wield
Fungal Arts
Tinkering
Rogue Scientist
Clockwork Knight

I'm sure some could be substituted for equal or better late game, but I'm early in this game and it is going well. I put my first point into Fungal Arts for the pet to help early survivability, then 1 each into swords, daggers and dual wield which combined with a decent 3 star sword I found makes him a beast in melee with many double attacks from these 3 trees. Still on dungeon level 1 and about to work up tinkering and rogue scientist to craft me some really nice gear and 2 for healing potions then going full on clockwork knight till max. I'm not sure about end game viability but it seems to be a good concept so far and I can always make hand grenades for dredmor himself I'm sure. Only concern I have is the daggers tree since with clockwork knight and the associated gear I'm sure my will suffer later in the game but it is working well so far.

 

Concerning a Crossbow/Rogue build I'm still playing (that X-Files: Skully = Paranormal Investigator, Rogue Scientist, Crossbows, Tinkerer, Burglary, and Archeology), question: Is it generally better to go with Dodge-oriented items and not block/absorb?

There's a lot of good Clockwork stuff available through Tinkering (or just finding), but they step on Nimbleness - does that affect Crossbow skills, or not? (oh, they step on stealth, too). I keep debating on it (so far I stick with just trying to up my Nimbleness and Dodge). It looks to me that Crossbows always hit, but the enemy has a chance to dodge, and as Nimbleness affects Enemy Dodge Reduction . . . . .

To the point, I guess, I'm asking Crossbowers/Throwers - what kind of armor/protective items do you favor?

 

Focusing on Dodge is NOT a good idea, unless you really build your character around it. (Ignoring the current sillyness with dodge-enhancing crusts...)

A solid and character is always a good idea - the minus to is pretty minor since it takes two points to reduce dodge by 1%. With armor it is the penalties to and which make them unappealing to certain characters.

Wear some parachute pants, and you're all good.

 

Currently, my GRPD build is: Summoner, Blood Magic, Leywalker, Egyptian Magic, Magical Law, Wild Magics, Dungeon Delver .. It was a random build, but I changed Self-Righteous Aspirant for Blood Magic and Dual Wield for Dungeon Delver.

I'm up to lvl 5 so far, going strong. Pretty sure I'll get destroyed soon tho cause of the lack of a healing skill.

 

First post

My current build is:

Werediggle
Unarmed Combat
Berserker Rage
Fungal Arts
Burglary
Perception
Artful Dodger

My main goal was all of the passive procs and stat boosts since they should (I hope) transfer to the Werediggle form.

Any critique is welcome, mainly because I just got the game last week. I've tried magic builds, and more traditional melee builds. I'm no stranger to Roguelikes, but I'm still working out the skill combos here

 

Werediggle is...complicated.

http://www.dredmorwiki.com/wiki/Werediggle

This might help you out a bit.

Procs yes, passive stat bonuses no.

 

I swear I read that bloody thing 4 times, and now that you pointed that out, now I see non-combat skills aren't added in. The changes aren't too drastic thank goodness. (I'm doing a screenshot comparison).

It looks like I'm doing the same amount of damage, (10) with the Werediggle Form doing 3 Pierce, 1 Fire +6 and Normal doing 2 Crushing, 2 Pierce, 1 Fire +5 . The biggest changes are Dodge (down by 6 points in Werediggle Form) and Enemy Dodge Reduction (down by 8 points in Werediggle Form).

Is Werediggle a good skill? What about the build in general (even though now I'm looking at dropping Artful Dodge for Assassinate)?