Share your Builds

Do you usually do this with a specific build or on any builds when you feel like doing that "challenge" ?

 

yeah: avoid any + skills and find yourself a bucket to slap on your head as quickly as possible. After all, if you never see the stairs, you don't have to take them down!

 

Crafting is usually involved. Other than that, nothing specific.

 

Over Caffeinated- Over Suspicious

• Conspiracy Victim
• Baristacrat
• Galactic Hitchhiker
• Tinkerer
• Paranormal Investigator
• Artful Dodger (Avoid people/monsters)
• Unarmed (Pushes people away)

A high ranged build.

 

I'm trying to cobble together...well, either a Bard or a Monk. That's as per the primary stat tooltips. My interpretation is that a Bard has at least three each of Wizard and Rogue skillpaths, a Monk at least three each of Warrior and Wizard. My main concern is having both good damage output/survivability AND a nice suite of debuffs. The annoying bit is that there always seem to be EIGHT skillpaths that I want to use...{sigh} With the Bard, its Maces/Staves and Smithing that clog the seventh slot scheming. With the Monk, its Assassination and Thrown Weaponry.

Anyway...

Bard scheme:

*Viking Wizardry (elemental brands, Unholy Warcry--the debuff DOES outlast the fear, right?--Arctic Vortex)
*Mathemagic (Xeuclid's Translation, Recursive Curse)
*Magical Law (Writ of Counterspelling, Wright's Irrefutable Argument)
*Rogue Scientist (Barometric Vortex Upgrade, Alchemical Gas Canister)
*Tinkering (bolt crafting, plus amplifying Barometric Vortex Upgrade)
*Assassination (Vile Poisons, Sneaky Shiv)
*Maces or Staves (Maces for knockback and Crushed Bones; Staves, while with a less reliable paralysis chance, does benefit from Sagacity)

Monk scheme:

*Maces or Staves
*Battle Geology (Seismic Uppercut, Quake)
*Smithing (making my own weapons and armor!)
*Viking Wizardry
*Mathemagic
*Magical Law
*Assassination

{sigh} I should consider trying to devise debuff-heavy builds for the other four classes, too...(Warrior, Wizard, and Rogue are here defined as having at least five skillpaths of the associated type)

 

I've discovered that "awesome synergy overkill" builds don't really work. I've been using variants of this build because I promised the creator of Barrier Maiden that his skill was OP and that I can prove it, but I'm beginning to think that I should just slap it on an otherwise solid build instead of trying to run it on a balls-out mega-synergizing gish.

Barrier Maiden
Vampire + Master of Arms combo
Staff (Essence's alpha version)
War Weaver
Blood Magic
Warlockery

This build didn't work because I as a player should never play a Vampire. Even Barrier Maiden and its ability to give me more armor than a warrior can't save me when I see named Deths or Aethernauts or Friendly AIs that resist my pitiful amounts of due to the fact that they resist crushing damage like crazy.

Barrier Maiden
Blood Magic
War Weaver
Dual Wield (Essence's alpha)
Staff (Essence's alpha)
Archaeology
Alchemy

Now this looks like a more potentially-awesome hardcore gish... and this build taught me that gishes should have some warrior skills somewhere. The idea with most of these builds is that I could take EVERY SINGLE LEVEL of all of these skills and the synergy would be sicknasty on every single one, but the huge holes in my character kill me every time. Yeah Barrier Maiden gives me massive armor, but when I'm this squishy, the tiny amounts of elemental damage that make it through are still enough to kill me.

This is very frustrating. Barrier Maiden is huge huge HUGE! It has the most powerful capstone in any game, including mods. It gives more armor in the early game than some warriors have at late game. It keeps doing this while giving you amazing side-benefits and keeping up the scaling awesomeness throughout. It has the amazing nuke for detonating your wards.

Also: This build taught me that you really shouldn't use Dual Wield on a character that has crappy warrior stats. The EDR penalty is crushing.

I will say this: I love the fact that having negative EDR makes it so your character really is lying to themselves about the enemies being able to "dodge" attacks rather than them just clumsily missing.

And I STILL suck so badly at this game that I can't make a build that abuses it properly!

Here's my next concept.
Barrier Maiden
Blood Magic
Drunken Boxing
Warlockery
Dual Wield
Alchemy
Staff

The theory here is that Drunken Boxing gives amazing roguey stats like dodge and (I think EDR... if not, screw this idea) to make up for the This build can't take Archaeology to abuse IBIAM with, but hopefully it'll work fine anyway. The reason I want IBIAM so badly is because Barrier Maiden is a VERY long tree, and it doesn't get the insane power I want to prove to the creator until very very deep in. I don't want to delve deep for a capstone until I have a solid foundation (a couple of levels in Dual Wield, one level in Blood Magic, one level in Drunken Boxing, one level in Staff...)

I am sure I'll somehow die with this build too, of course.

 

While it's not up yet, the latest version of CES does in fact add a -10 penalty to the first level of Drunken Boxing, because it was a lot OP for a 1st level skill. So play it while you can!

 

Drunken boxing + dual weild: It's like everyone is dodge capped!

 

/tableflip

Then I'm out of ideas for ways to still be able to abuse Dual Wield in post-Essence form. I'll have to delay delving for the Barrier capstone even further while I level up to Inverse Minion Law...

 

Arching Wing of the Batty?

 

Tha's true.

You know... I'm starting to wonder if leaving Dual Wield at level 0 isn't, in fact, a liability. Depending on your build it might stay one for a while. And at that, taking one level in it isn't even going to work very well, because the big penalty kind of neuters the coolness of Offensive Maneuvering. At level 2 it gets better.

Humble, unqualified opinion: Not good to have a skill be a liability at level 0, and have level 1 of it be largely ruined by that liability.

Maybe my words carry less weight since I haven't tried it on an actual warrior instead of my (crappy, as it turned out) gishy-synergy-overkill build.

 

I have. On a dedicated warrior, it partially compensates for the increased damage of the second weapon by making you miss more often, but you still usually kill things faster with it. Same with a dedicated Rogue, largely because a dedicated Rogue will start the game with maybe a -7 penalty.

 

Swords
Dual Wield
Berserk
Warlockery
Barrier Maiden
Leylines
Archaeology

This time I've got Swords and Berserk, so I've actually got what it takes to fuck shit up. I wanted Smithing and Psionics, but instead I switched Blood Magic for Leylines (theoretically I might someday get a teleport from Leylines... I guess if I survive until the late game then it'll still be relevant, right?) and took Archaeology because--again--I want a solid amount of warrior shit before I start diving deep into Barrier Maiden. Barrier Maiden will make it so I don't care how much armor my gear has, which is kind of cool, but I dunno how much it'll really matter.

If (when) I die, I'll switch Warlockery for War Weaver because I still haven't given it a fair try and it's so interesting and I don't need max mana on a gish.

Edit: ... And then I realized that Swords sucks on a gish. Ugh! Maybe if I don't wear anything that reduces my Nimbleness... maybe if I get lucky and see stuff that increases my Nimbleness... God dammit!

Update: Yeah, died. Turns out being an awesome melee ass-kicker doesn't matter when you completely lack utility.

Axe
Berserk
Dual Wield
Barrier Maiden
Pisonics
Leylines
War Weaver

Psychokinetic Shove is, no doubt about it, a crazy wonder-skill. Back when I was first learning the game, I didn't want to leave home without it. It doesn't need scaling, it saves bad situations, it's an unconditional, targetable push, it's freaking awesome. The rest of Psionics, if I decide to get it (I won't) will be great too since I've got decent Wizard stats.

Barrier Maiden will hopefully make up for the drawback of Lumberjack Stance and War Weaver is a better companion to Barrier Maiden even though it'll kill my ability to spam Psionics skills.

 

Suggestion for Gish:

Astrology
War Weaver
Ley Walker
Blood Magic
Magic Training
Barrier Maiden
Warlock if you really want to ham up the resistances / weapon skill if you like / Alchemy most of the time

This build is actually pretty solid because you have tons of mana to fuel your buffs and damaging spell, and tons of savvy to keep mana costs low enough to spam out said spell.

In my first run through (my testing run for war weaver) I swapped Barrier Maiden for Viking Wizardy.

 

Octo on level 1 that blasted me for 10 damage with its missile attacks. Jesus christ, is that normal? I don't remember those goddamn things chunking me so hard.

This is bullshit.

I'm being very tempted to make this character a Vegan Pony. Cutting out a huge amount of highly relevant monsters, the insanely powerful Blinding Flash, plus Pony gives me a missile at level 0 to help me in the early game and then the stupidly overpowered Fluttershy heal at level 2 that can cleanse off the vegan debuffs, then at level 2 of Pony there's a point in Alchemy to make rust potions with AND that level gives me the Applejack Kick.

I will NOT be a pony, because the object is to prove the power of Barrier Maiden, not to prove the power of Ponymancy--I've already done that with my only run that ever killed Dredmor. I also won't be a vegan No matter how immensely it would help. No matter how infuriated I am right now. ARGH GOD DAMMIT. D:<

I may go back to Warlockery. In all these runs I've left Warlockery at level 1 thinking to take it in the late game and also with the theory that Puissant Touch was helping a lot anyway, but I am starting to feel like the "resist everything by 1" effect on Mana Maille would be awesome combined with the fact that I have all the armor absorb I need.

I will say this: The chance for wards to disappear unexpectedly was a very good design decision. It mitigates, slightly, the fact that the wards are basically infinite armor. They give pierce resist, man. They're exactly like wearing crazy heavy armor. Maaaan.

Next try. I really ought to give some of these more than one try, but I feel like I'm learning about playing a hardcore gish (as opposed to a warrior with magic utility tricks) every time.

Staff
Dual Wield
Barrier Maiden
War Weaver
Astrology
Leylines
Alchemy

I don't have Berserk this time, but Staff synergizes with a gish (that's the whole point of it) and Dual Wield should fix the problem of staffs running into early enemies that laugh off crushing damage. The cool thing about Staff is that the Empowered Mana Weave will be really early-game deadly this time thanks to Spirit Conduit.

I don't have any trap sense this time and I'm as squishy as all shit. This could be a problem. Gonna need help from the Random Number Goddess and the blessing of Empress Faust, here. And again I am without a knockback or really any utility at all. Hopefully rust potions will help... though I've had plenty of times when they didn't... though maybe this time I'll be able to layer myself in enough magic protection so that the health I gain doesn't get immediately slashed off this time.

I am beginning to feel like gishes weren't meant to dual wield. Fuck that, I'm going to keep trying, it theoretically could be really great.

Astro, because it's one of the best level 0 skills in the game, and because let's get real, this build has an TON of "synergizing levels that I want to take."

Ditto Alchemy--yeah it's awesome to make your own staffs but just having Alchemy for rust potions is awesome already, and I really can't be delaying Barrier Maiden longer than I already am--I'm going to want level 1 or 2 of staff, level 1 of leylines, and level 2 of dual wield for my "foundation," not to mention level 1 of War Weaver maybe.

If I survive long enough, one of my "foundation" skills with be level 1 of War Weaver since IIRC that one gives me a bunch of resists. That ought to mitigate the fact that the minor magic damage from enemies is still enough to kill me when my ass is so squishy.

Holy crap, the Astro buff gives you +5 EDR! This build is looking better and better. Still probably going to get my ass killed due to having no knockback or anything, though. Maybe I should max Leylines? Ugh! MORE DELAYS!

 

The build I've been floating around the last few days is:

• Swords
• Daggers
• Dual Wield
• Blood Magic
• War Weaver
• Poisoneer (the new version)
• Astrology

It started mostly for testing purposes, but It has a gish-like feel, even though it doesn't have a whole lot of mage skills. The idea is that with the sword & dagger stances and the bonuses from dual wield, it should be reasonably easy to become block capped from a few warrior items. Plus I will get in the ballpark of 60 counter. Poisoneer builds power through the EDR gained from Astrology and the dagger tree. I get two heals, a mana-less one from poisoneer, the other from war weaver. The rogue levels in daggers and poisoneer will help get the astrology costs down to where I can strip out most of my MP with WW buffs.

The hard part is the balance between getting over the -20 EDR hump from dual wield to make poisoneer's damage and healing actually useful and getting the weapon stances to more safely melee foregoing the heal.

I've considered taking out poisoneer for another wizard gish skill, but it seems to me that if I take another wizard skill, I won't have enough mana gain from blood magic to feed both skills. I do need to just try it, though, and see how it plays.

 

It would be the same in real life, though.

 

I played a Sword+Dagger character once and the power level was hilarious.

I think that character had Sword, Dagger, Berserk, Archaeology, Dual, Warlock, and Wild Magic. Part of the design of the character was that it was almost an even split between gish and rogue/warrior. Damn. You're making me want to try this again now that I've got Essence's alpha for dual and swords.

 

I've always considered Sword+Staff to be the best bet for maxing out Block. 40 from Montoya, 10 from Not In The Face (which also gives 20% stun -- nice --) and 15 from just normal levelling up the staff (which you can totally multiply by 1.5 by equipping a sword, activating Montoya, and then swapping out for another staff for a total of 72 block just from your weapon skills.)

You don't get Overhau or Trompenant with it (and you'll never bother taking Sword Poetry or Long Stance, since you won't be using either), but you get lots of Magic-Power-based damage along with massive block to reduce squishiness. Combine with Warlockery and lots of Wizard skills to pimp out Puissant Touch and add to your block power with Mana Maille, and you should in theory be golden. You just have to add enough other skills (read: Barrier Maiden?!?) to survive that long.

 

Observation from Staff + War Weaver:

Holy jesus what War Weaver's level 0 skill is mind-blowing. 3 magic power that I can keep on pushing up and up and up as my character levels up?

War Weaver's level - such rapid scaling that I want to abuse it--use the level 0 to power a build. 3 magic power every couple levels (that's how often I get 10ish more mana) is such hardcore scaling that it's only going to get more ridiculous in the midgame. Sadly, this trick anti-synergizes HARD with War Weaver's heal, which might be intentional now that I think about it, because that heal is also crazily powerful.

The damage from Astrology procs was unreal. Once I've completed a solid run with this Barrier Maiden tinkering to prove a point (I'll be satisfied if I manage to get a build to survive the early game, steamroll the mid-game, and then die in a legitimately horrible situation in the RotDG levels) I want to do War Weaver with something funny like Necro or Electromancy or maybe Ponymancy's Wub Cannon if I can convince the creator of Ponymancy to nerf the crap out of Fluttershy.

There's an issue with this, though--legit *casters* unlike Warlock or Barrier or buff-spam characters who don't care about anything but regen can't be walking around with a mana pool of 8. You want to be able to cast a couple of spells in a row, which means lots of max mana. This is, of course, an intentional feature of War Weaver, but I'll find a way around it. Maxing Leylines and carrying around mana potions as well as rust potions might help. Or maybe take those mana potions with Magic Training (who woulda thought that Magic Training would be actually useful?)

edit: Turns out I'm dumb and the Ponymancer guy actually nerfed Fluttershy like I was begging him to. Great! Maybe I will use it after all.