Unarmed Build suggestions needed

I'm just starting an unarmed build and figuring out a skill set. Since I've yet to get further than floor 3 (keep building new characters) I'm not sure how to make a viable build on dwarven moderation that will be able to handle the challenges of the later floors. That is where you come in, I would like some help with suggestions on skill choices to get a well rounded build.

Current skill choices:

1) Unarmed
2) Beserker Rage
3) Artful Dodger
4) Viking Wizardry
5) Perception
6) Burglary
7) Assassination

1) Unarmed: obvious choice, however for some reason (bug) I don't begin with Hachimaki hat which grants Stubbornness +1 Melee Power +1. This kind of sucks since there isn't something else over riding starting equipment. I guess I'll have to pray to Krong I find one or it pops up in a shop.

Total buffs on maxed tree:

Block Chance +11
Dodge Chance +7
Counter Chance +13
Critical Chance +6
Enemy Dodge Reduction +6
Crushing Damage +3
Piercing Damage +1
Aethereal Damage +4


2) Beserker Rage: I figure the extra buffs and stackability will be helpful long term.

Berserker Rage: 25% chance on hit to proc Berserker Rage on the character for the duration of 7 turns. It can stack up to 3 times and causes the following: Burliness +1 Caddishness +1 Melee Power +1 Armour Absorption +1.

Berserker Vengeance: 25% chance when hit to proc Berserker Vengeance on the character for the duration of 7 turns. It can stack up to 3 times and causes the following: Burliness +1 Stubbornness +1 Melee Power +1 Armour Absorption +2.

More Berserker Rage: 13% chance on hit and 12% chance when hit to proc More Berserker Rage on the character for the duration of 7 turns. It can stack up to 3 times and causes the following: Burliness +2 Caddishness +2 Melee Power +2 Armour Absorption +2.

3)Artful Dodger: Dodge buffs, Knightly Leap is awesomely helpful in tons of situations.
Total buffs on maxed tree: Dodge Chance +9 Nimbleness +2

4) Viking Wizardry- Essentially the utility skill. Power of Magic Steel is extra damage/defense/buffs. Skatha's roots for some limited control. Arctic Vortex & Unholy Warcry to debuff creatures.

The main reason for choosing this skill is Hand of Belimawr for damage boost. Self-buff that can stack up to 3 times and lasts for 4 attacks, granting the character the following benefits: Melee Power +1 Conflagratory Damage +4 Conflagratory Damage Resistance +2 and a 40% chance on hit and 20% chance when hit to proc Ignition Bolt.

Thor's bolt is just some AOE spell for zoo's etc. (just icing on the cake)

5) Perception- Wasn't too sure about this choice. It's here basically for dealing with traps and its other synergistic buffs. Sight radius, dodge, enemy dodge reduction (if your not doing huge damage you need to not miss any attacks), more dodge buffs. Second sight is just more of same buffs+ Counter Chance.

6) Burglary: I hate kicking doors, I hate bashing chests and losing gear, (what if my precious Hachimaki was inside?!!)
This is also handy for dealing with traps and utility skills like Lock Up, Ninja Vanish, Move in mysterious ways. Boosts Nimbleness as well.

7) Assassination: Super handy passives that add damages and procs. Max tree=Critical Chance +7.

Blackjack- 18% chance on hit to proc Blackjack which deals an extra Crushing Damage and puts the monster to sleep for 10 turns.

Sneaky Shiv - 21% chance on hit to proc Sneaky Shiv which deals 3 extra Piercing Damage and 50% chance to paralyze the monster for 5 turns.

Et tu?- 21% chance on hit to proc Et tu? which deals 3 extra Piercing Damage .



Summary thoughts:

Seems solid but I dunno how late game plays. I don't want to go dual shields build. I want to rely on Dodge as much as possible and have buffs from skills, equipment to get me through. I do however want to get a hold of a duelist shield for the dodge boost.

Main problem with unarmed is damage output, early game is treacherous until you get your first level, however Power of magic steel is perfect to help with this. I hear that late game is supposedly worse since you are unlikely to get one hit kills and damage output from weapons is so much higher. Obviously maxing Unarmed and Artful dodger out early. Then going through Viking Wizardry until I get my flaming fist of doom. ^_^ I am hopeful that Assassination, Beserker Rage, combined with Hand of Belimawr will give me decent damage output late game.

Seems like the high buffs given by skills could mean a super high dodge, critical and counter chance should get pretty high too. Everything else is buffs and situational utility spells/skills.

Anything you want to add?

 

If you want to start with a specific hat, make sure it's the last skill you pick. Hats will override each other. So, for example, if you took unarmed and archeology, you'd only get the fedora if you picked it after unarmed.

Anyway, on dwarven moderation, taking viking magic is a lot more valid. If you were going rogue, I'd say drop it. Mana regen is just too slow, and you'll want to spend your points on something else. Also, you can already deal damage just fine with melee (even though it doesn't seem like it at times), so if you want to cast magic, I'd suggest something that can do the things that melee can't, and do it within the first spell or two (Maybe three. Fourth skill is too far, if you're going melee build).

- Golemancy can give you a nice summon at lvl 2, which will grab the attention of anything standing next to it. Currently, pet AI is stupid, so don't rely on it to kill. Also, as far as I'm aware, doesn't scale with magic power, so you don't have to worry about shrinking it. The lvl 1 spell can also help with some crowd control to gain your first level or two.
- Fleshsmithing gives you a defensive bonus along with some regen. The 2nd skill will do damage, and the 3rd will heal (if you want to go that deep).
- Mathematics gives you a random teleport, which can get you out of some sticky situations (although Buffalo Throwing Technique will get you out of most of those). Wouldn't bother going further.
- Psionics can make an enemy sleep at lvl 1 (good crowd control), push at lvl 2 (although unarmed can already do that too), and heal at lvl 3 (if you want to spend two levels on it)
- Astrology has a good lvl 1 buff.

Really, Buffalo Throwing Technique (and maybe a handy wand or two) will do a lot of crowd control for you. I'd consider maybe taking one of the defense skills over it, because any points spent in those will be used more often than spells (especially if you want to try going rogue with the build later)

 

The major problem with Hand of Belimawr is their high cost. They are not sustainable without some magic power, recovery (by that I mean booze), or blood mage. Another problem will be actually having the breathing space to cast 3 buffs before swinging your legs.

I recommend replacing Viking with Necronomiconomic. Pack of Fleeting Life can provide both the damage and survivability when you needed them most.

Gear wise I will still advocate for defense shield over duelist. Or at least go with 2x invisible shield so you can have 8 defense without dodge penalty. You can't get dodge much beyond 50% so you will still be getting hit quite a bit. A vampire hunter's hat will also be really good if you are going Necronomiconomic.

I don't know why but I have never gotten a Hachimaki by picking unarmed anymore, even with an empty helmet slot. Intentionally removed? Bug? I don't know. But it does make unarmed nearly unplayable for the first level

 

It's possible that one of the other skills is marked as having a hat, but doesn't have one associated with it? So it will override the hat with nothing. Try picking unarmed absolutely last, and see if that works.

Edit - Oh, forget what I said. Apparently someone tested it, and you need warrior skills > rogue/mage. Basically need to get the warrior armor and have unarmed to get it.

 

Thanks for taking a look and providing your suggestions. I'll take them into consideration. I was thinking about Fleshsmithing and Astrology when I was putting together my skill choices. Having Golemancy would probably be good too. Hmmm...decisions decisions. I think I'm going to see how far I get with current build then back to the drawing board.

fishofmuu I tried that too. Nada. Going to see if I can snoop around the XML and see if anything is mucked up.

 

Did you see my edit?

 

Perhaps exchange Viking for Fungi? You get a companion and a lot of the 'shrooms have melee effects. Transmute or sell the sagacity booster and the booze mushroom and use the rest to buff up - and the buffs have a pretty good length. You also have some throwables that can help you out a bit with crowd control and a bit more invisibility when you need it.

Plus, it gives you a source of income to help buy that shiny piece of armour or ring... or more food, if that's necessary.

 

@fishofmuu just seeing it now. Really? Well that kind of sucks. I just swapped out Perception for Master of Arms and then I got it...That should be changed.

Sunhawk not a bad idea either. I would get all the buff I am wanting for the other skills and lots of other benefits you pointed out.

 

So new skills set I'm trying out:

1) Unarmed
2) Beserker Rage
3) Master of Arms
4) Viking Wizardry
5) Fungal Arts
6) Burglary
7) Assassination

I really didn't want to use Necroeconomics in general I just hate the skill. Too much to keep track of with its sacrifice vs gain type abilities. Decided to give up insane high dodge and go for high block instead. Kept Viking wizardry because I've yet to actually use Hand of Belimawe yet and I must! Also picked up Fungal arts since with a little micro it can be the "everything needed for every situation" skill.

New character name RoboChop, heh.

 

If you want block, Smith can be better than Master of Arm. You are highly unlikely to find 2 Ring of Iron Thorns so being able to craft them is like having 12 blocks and 16 counter rate.

 

I just ditched Fungal Arts for Smithing. I can't make up my damn mind on this build so I'm going to just play and hope for the best. I primarily just want a beat em up melee guy anyway and I'll learn what Im lacking when I delve deeper into the game than I have already.

I always end up speccing more than playing in games like this...

 

Don't ditch Fungal, you NEED some healing. Only ditch it if you have other forms of healing.

 

Yeah, I tried making a Sword/Mace/Heavy Armor tankie build and forget to include any healing skills.

Relying on food and potions for ALL your healing is NOT fun. It's doable (on Moderation at least) but it can be tedious and irritating at times, especially if you aren't getting any Fud Machines to raid.

 

Healing is for sissies.

Seriously though I better add some back in or I'll regret it later Im sure.

 

I like my build so far. Playing on going rogue with permadeath, im on level 6 of the dungeon now.

Unarmed
Berserk
Dodge
Assassin
Throwing
Deadshot
Psionics

(Hopefully I will find another throw weapon machine soon. Been low on thrown weapons, but I still like them)

 

Generally speaking, vampirics is useful for healing, if you can outdamage more than you are taking damage, and if you have the patience for fungal arts, you can essentially end up with an infinite supply of healing mushrooms, buffs, etc...

 

I decided I didn't have patience for Fungal arts so I chose Fleshsmithing as my heal type skill.

current build:

Character Name: Orange Wu-Tang

1) Unarmed
2) Beserker Rage
3) Master of Arms
4) Viking Wizardry
5) Flesh Smithing
6) Burglary
7) Assassination

 

I have a vampirism build that is killin' it

1.Unarmed
2.Psionics
3.Master of Arms
4.Vampirism
5.Perception
6.Assassination
7.Berserker Rage

 

Looks like a good build, I am distrustful of Vampirism. The only time I tried to play it I used it on a Mace build and died from the fourth diggle I encountered (Dwarven diff). Maybe I should try it out again. I did hear about a bug that allowed you to drain life on corpses under your target too that would make defending choke points hella nice.

Honestly though I just want the new patch to arrive... so much isn't calculating or performing as described that it feels pointless to try to contemplate builds at this time.

 

Once I got two shields, nothing could really hit me. It took a while to not die before getting the Drinker of the Dead skill, which is where the healing comes from. I got Psionics for backup healing, but I haven't had much need for it yet. I picked perception b/c I got really tired of traps.