Warrior Build

Howdy.
Just one night left and in the morning fun begins. Devs are EU time right? Well anyways, now that warriors will be more viable I would like to share some ideas with you guys.
Do note that this is for GR/PD and for 104.

- Berserker Rage
- Vampirism
- Dual Wielding

I know I want those 2 skills. Berserker Rage just seems the obvious thing to take. I like the buffs.
Vampirism is because I always and soon run out of food. And that's just stupid and annoying. I think Vampirism is a must here.
Dual Wielding is an obvious skill to take. I could go Shield bearer instead of it but I'm here for damage and damage only!

- Swords
- Axes
- Maces

I don't know what should I go here. I like axes, but they have the worst ability (that spinning axedo thingy). Maces have a great stun and while Swords is in between. And I didn't even consider stats each skill tree gives. From your experiences, what weapon of choice is the best?

Now from here on it gets tricky.
I would want:

- Artful Dodger, for dodging and leaping.
- Master of Arms, for being extra tough.
- Deadshot, for not missing and extra damage. (do you miss a lot with melee?)
- Assassination, for extra damage.
- Viking Wizardry, hell yeah!
- Psionics, because I love the heal and cc, but it kinda destroys the "warrior" class.
- Smithing
- Archaeology

Probably Deadshot and Assassination are the least important.
I guess either Dodger or Master of Arms. Dodger is probably a lot better just because of the leap. But Arms gives huge toughness. Maybe both?
Viking Wizardry? Is it generally good? Will I have enough mana to support it?
Archaeology is so good that I can hardly give it up, but I guess I should?
Would love to go Smithing because of 104 changes, probably with Masters of Arms?

I'm not sure.
What do you guys suggest?

p.s
Sorry for my bad English.

 

Swords, Assassination, Deadshot, and Smithing.

I like the increased counter chance with swords, which really pairs nicely with Dual Wielding. Assassination gives you more damage, more crits, and a chance to stun. Smithing because it makes you burly, helps a little with traps, and is useful in itself. Deadshot because it can't hurt to have a better dodge-reduction, and it has a DoT effect.

I could see changing Deadshot out for Master of Arms (I like this skill quite a bit), though. Burglary or Artful Dodger would also be suitable substitutes, I think.

I wouldn't add Viking Wizardry, or Psionics, since you'll probably want to wear armor. Armor kills magery, of course.


And as of 1.03, I've never had much trouble hitting with melee builds. So in that respect, Deadshot isn't really that necessary. Still can't hurt, though.

 

Fungal Arts over vampirism. You can get a fungus that gives you vampirism plus all the other useful fungus. Plus you get a pet that's good.

 

- Berserker Rage
- Vampirism
- Dual Wielding
- Sword, 16 counter
- Assassination
- Smithing, another 16 counters with ring of iron thorn
- Dodger or Burglary (you NEED 1 escape as melee)

@Lactose
Vamp is change in 1.04 such that you get 3 leech with 0 magic power. Fungal will no longer give you the better leech for a pure warrior build.

Personally though I will ditch Berserk for Fungal instead.

 

I have really mixed experiences with Vampirism in 103 but I'll see. Late in the game it can be problematic but in 104 that (hopefully) will be less of an issue. Also, food is less of a problem if you raid the vending machines.

I think for my first melee build after the update, I'll probably do something like Mace/Dual Wield/Berserker/Smithing/Burglary/Assassination/????. Last skill I'm leaning towards Tinkering for the trap affinity, but I'm also considering others that you've both mentioned (if you couldn't tell, I also love crafting, even while I hate what it does to my inventory).

 

I'm going to do a counter build.

 

I like Vamp better then fungal arts. But I loved how I could heal myself up by hitting Wyrmling pet. Now I won't.

Does no one care about Archaeology?

Assassination seems better then Deadshot.

And Burglary seems a lot better then Dodger I guess. But how exactly does Five-finger Discount work? If there is a chance of Brax spotting you then this skill sucks. I mean you usually lose the game on GR if you get an entire floor of tax collectors. I guess the idea here is to do it when you cleared the floor already and you can vanish then escape to the next level. What's the % on it tho?

Thank you so far guys.

 

Fungal Arts is good, but it's not the same as Vampirism. I like both, but Vampirism is more low maintenance, and it's synergistic with melee.

Escape <i>is</i> nice, but I've never found it absolutely necessary. I just keep fairywodger around, keep my buffs active (Master of Arms), and think carefully about what I am fighting. I admit that I haven't gotten past floor seven with a melee build, though. I usually get reckless.

In that case, Burglary is better. Melee doesn't need early escape (shouldn't), and being able to pick doors and chests is a great boon.



Assassination, in my opinion, is hands down better than Deadshot. You can have all three effects trigger on one attack, as well as any others you may have, such as Liechtenauer's Overhau. It's also better than Berseker Rage, at least in 1.03.

 

Vampirism is only kind of synergistic with melee. I say 'kind of', because, of course, it is supposed to scale with your magic power, which will be fairly low with a melee build. I'd say it's probably better with a hybrid build.

 

You really want Knightly Leap from the Dodge line or some other escape.

 

I've had good luck with

Vampirism
Swords
Dual-wield
Burglary
Berserker Rage
Archaeology
Astrology

Even in 1.0.3. In theory, it should be even easier in 1.0.4, since you don't have to worry as much about Magic Power and Mana Regen and have more freedom in what armors you want to wear: you can go "rogue-y armor" and try to keep your Magic Power and Regen up, while stacking Dodge and Crit, and rely more on the Astrology buffs; or, you could go for heavy armors and swap Astrology for, say, Assassination.

 

Lol I am playing a melee on beta with Wand Lore.... It's actually not as terrible as I imagined. It provides the much needed in between healing with coral and zodiac for 0 skill point investment. You will need a little luck to get a coral early though.

Wand Lore
Vampirism
Dual Wielding
Sword
Assassination
Smithing
Burglary

 

If by luck you mean rerolling your character until you start with a Coral, Zodiac and Tentacular wand.

 

As for the effectiveness of vampirism, no need to say more:


vampirism skill : 3+0.14F
?spell name="Vampirism Attack" type="target"
effect type="drain" piercing="2" piercingF="0.14"
effect type="trigger" spell="heal" amount="1" ?


shroom: 3+0.25F
?spell name="Blungecap Vampirism Attack" type="target"
effect type="drain" piercing="3" piercingF="0.25" sfx="fleshbore"?

 

Edit: Well beat the game with dual sword melee on Beta, yes even killed dredmor with melee. You definitely NEED an escape and an in between heal once you hit floor 7, otherwise the spells will burn you alive. But at least it shows pure melee is theoretically possible.

@kentshaw
Humm you are right they buffed shroom too... Guess I missed that change.

@J-Factor
I guess technically you didn't "start" the game yet, so you are not rerolling "during" the game. But since I didn't "take advantage" of this, I ended up not getting a coral until floor 4....

 

What would be the best "inbetween heal" skill for a melee build? On Rogue difficulty.

The ones available are

Crystal Healing, 3rd in Psionics
Knit Flesh, 3rd in Fleshsmithing
Alchemy, probably 5 points to provide a decent amount of potions but will also make other useful stuff.
Fungal Arts, needs 3 points for shroom transformation. Seeds get tedious quick so I would prefer to avoid it.

Is Wand Lore actually viable? How many uses can you get out of a wand with maxed skills?

 

Well wand lore is what I used on GR, so it's good enough if you are also using vamp... The primary advantage is you don't need to put points on wand lore at all. It's all about the recharge skill. Keep coral entropy at 0 and it becomes a 23 hp heal every 80 turns. If you have a backup coral you can take a bit more risk and cast 2 to 3 times before recharging. So getting full health in between isn't a problem. To put into perspective, I burned 1 coral throughout the whole game.

Fungal is obviously the best with level 3, if you can handle it.

Crystal Healing is also a good heal, but does not provide all the other benefit fungal has.

Knit Flesh is a terrible in between heal, you probably want to avoid it.

Alchemy is good if you are using staves, and has a spot in all my hybrid builds. But like Fungal it is just as tedious, so for non staves you can just use fungal and save the 2 skill points.

 

I'll went with:
-Wand Lore
-Vampirism
-Dual Wielding
-Sword
-Assassination
-Smithing
-Burglary

Kinda hate not having Berserker but still. I hate fungal arts or any kind of magical skills, even tho wards kinda are. But there is nothing else to regen with.

But now I'm wondering what skills to level up first?
I know I take second skill in vamp first obv, but then I was thinking of maxing smithing first. After DualW, Burglary till Vanish, then Swords or Assass?
What would you skill?

Thank you.

 

@DerpTyrant

Since that's the exact same build as mine, I can tell you exactly what I did

Vamp to lv 2 -> Sword to lv 3 -> Smith to Max ->Sword to Max -> Burglary to lv 4 -> Dual Wielding to Max -> Assassination to Max

Sword give more bonus than Dual Wield since it get doubled for dual wielding. Smith was slightly delayed to compensate for the reduction in ingot. Burglary comes next so you can have an escape by floor 7. Then finally Dual Wield wraps up the counter rate.

 

I went with this:

Dual Wield
Swords
Berserk
Assassin
Burglary
Master of Arms
Smithing


Leveled smith to two, then I maxed dual. I haven't made it further than that yet. It's very nice so far. This is all level one on Dwarven with perma-death.