Melee characters. Tough,but surprisingly vulnerable to magic,unless you pick up the Black Mirror Shield and chug Deflection Draughts like water. I want to challenge the paradigm that seems to prevail melee builds: Go extreme damage or extreme tank,but never hybridize. That is what I want to do with this build,plus a few extras. What I'm about to list off is my latest build,which got me to Floor 4 (my personal best),and seemed to work until AoE got involved. -Shield Bearer. Blocking and health regen,very valuable assets to a melee character. -Master at Arms. Health regen and better use of armour overall. Again,valuable for a more tanky melee character. -Maces. This was more of an experiment,to be honest. I've only ever used axes up to this point,but the Meteor ability was all sorts of useful. Especially when it came to fleecing Brax. -Smithing. Aside from the obvious bonus of making my own gear? The burl! -Assassination. Crits are handy. Crits are powerful. This skill makes them dependable and reliable,thus improving damage output. -Viking Magic. The first spell's a buff. Which is handy. All of the spells thereafter are great supplements for any warrior. -Throwing Weapons. More of a space filler,but it can be handy with more potent throwing weapons. End goal equipment was... -The Embossed Set. Cuirass,gauntlets,greaves,and booties. Amazing block chance,which is what the character was built upon,and great absorption. -Blackened Mirror Shield. While the block chance is,admittedly,mediocre,it DOES have a 50/50 chance to bounce spells and fancy bolts back. -Aluminum Helm. Honestly,there needs to be an Embossed Helm to match the rest of it,but this thing has some of the best Block Chance I've seen in the game...Mod items included. -Girdle of Steel Plates. From my memory,the best blocking belt in the game. -Asgardian Stormhammer. Simply put,a beast of a hammer. Unfortunately,with this build,Mjolnir is beyond reach outside of a lucky find,be it in a chest,in Brax's shop,or getting something to boost my Smithing by one level. -The Royal Beatdown. My second mace choice. Sadly,Mjolnir is leagues above. -Dwarven Atom Smasher. Dwarf Fortress reference,I see. I'd love this thing,but I heard it can ROYALLY screw you up. Third choice. Every other piece of gear is elective,but I would have placed higher priority on Block or Reflect chance. Both in decent values would've been an "Oh,HELL yes!" By the time I died to some DoT-AoE after the floor 4 Monster Zoo,I had the following... -Embossed Set. I got lucky with ore and item drops. Since I have Craft'n'Smelt installed,I can uncraft things. -Mirror Shield. The base one. Bought it off of Brax on Floor 2. All I was missing to upgrade was the Invisibility Potion. -Cool Clockwork Power Limb. Added by Craft'n'Smelt (I think). This was an AMAZING find. I stole it from Brax on the first floor. -Amulet of the North Winds. Or something like that. It gave me Hypo attack and resist,as well as giving an astounding three to Burl. Floor 1...I think. -Clockwork Tesla Rod. Stole this bad boy from Brax on Floor 1,and,incidentally,it would be my fourth choice of engame macery,thanks only to the stun chance. -Leather Girdle. Found this thing on Floor 3. A little late,I know,but,hey. Also,my third floor lacked a Brax. Curious. -Aluminium Helm. I just crafted this thing before coming down to Floor 4. I wasn't finding very much aluminum or aluminum product. -FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD. And lots of. I kept only what I needed to make better food,or food that healed for 20 turns or more. Sadly,it wasn't enough to save me. Curse you,Pumpkinns! Still,it got me to the fourth floor. Which is pretty damn awesome in my books. So,it got me thinking...Maybe it has some merit,after all? My first prototype was focused on Block Chance,but maybe I want to try something else. The goals for the build in general are as follows... -Self Sufficiency. I need to be able to build what I need,for the most part. -"Redecorating". Moving furniture is important. Because it lets me steal what I need from Brax. Because I'm a miser that way. -Damage Avoidance. I need a way to avoid or negate damage of all sorts. -Damage Output. It needs to be reliable,and I don't want to spend half the year hammering away at a Monster Zoo,or a particularly tough foe. A balance needs to be struck between tankiness and murderness. -Damage Control. I need a way to control any damage that I DO end up taking. The simplest method is with food,but that just doesn't cut it when I kick down the gates of a Zoo and get surrounded. -Melee Focus. Your sword will never betray you,to borrow a line from Andre of Astora. It doesn't need ammo. It doesn't need fuel. Of course,I can use more than swords. In fact,I have no weapon preference. So long at it gets the job done in a reasonable amount of time. For DLC,I have all of it: Conquest of the Wizardlands,Realm of the Diggle Gods,and You Have to Name the Expansion Pack (Which I've named "Expansion of the Clockwork Empire"),and for mods I have Craft'n'Smelt Lite'n'Shiny edition,Interior Dredmorating,and Roguish Renovation. So,who's willing to help someone out,eh? I've only had the game for a week,as an aside.
If it's specifically magic that you're afraid of, Magical Law is amazing. The capstone (refreshes a random cooldown) can also be very powerful with Warrior/Rogue skills.
Here's a few suggestions. 1. You don't need both Master of Arms and Shield Bearer. Since this is a warrior-type build, for the most part, you are going to get a lot of blocking from your gear anyway. 2. Don't worry all that much about health regen -- it's nice, but it's not what will keep you alive in combat. The only exception is if you are playing a vampire build, as its life-draining ability scales to health regen. 3. Weapons skills (Mace, Axe, Sword, Dagger, and Polearms) synergize with dual wield. My personal preference is that if I'm intending to use a shield, that I don't take a weapons skill, since the bonuses are less impressive without dual wield. There's no penalty to using a weapon that you don't have a skill for (the only actual penalty is if you try to dual-wield without the dual-wield skill). As I said, this is my personal preference, not a hard and fast rule. 4. Smithing can be frustrating if you don't find the ore and/or ingots. Perception can help you with that. Each point you put into it will increase random drops from monsters, including what you'll need for crafting. There's a lot of different ways you can go without changing too much. How about something like this. They don't play terribly different from what you selected, which is why I suggest them. Master of Arms Maces Dual Wield Smithing Assassination Viking Magic Perception Or Shield Bearer Smithing Assassination Berserk Rage Viking Magic Perception Thrown Weapons
If Throwing Weapons is just a filler, Blood Mage is great for maintaining mana for the passive buffs from Viking Wizardry. If you plan on focusing on the melee and cooldown skill trees, you can leave these two alone for basically the whole game the occasional stun from Power of Magic Steel is pretty valuable for melee builds
If you need both melee and tanking qualities try anything with Swords, Daggers and Dual wield as a base. You'll end up with at 100 without much trouble (two swords and that dagger stance) and that covers BOTH offence and defence. You'll have some trouble with magic users without your shields, so I would recommend taking some anti-magical skill like Magical Law or Emomancy. Everything else depends on your preference, although it would be wise to take some skills with .
There are two rings with 10 I think, together with the passive boost from that one level in Beserker Rage, you're already at 30 . Black Ulmish armour has another 15, so you're already halfway there
