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Hey, would you look at this, I got a non-antimagic win!

This handsome fellow was probably my easiest actual win, since the poor bosses couldn't take down even one of my shields.

I didn't close any portals, or do anything much really, except for spam spells and try not to hit poor Aeryn too much [she survived in the end!].

Actually, nothing after level 40 posed any threat to me at all. Apparently after a horrifying early and mid-game, Archmages become Death Stars, only there aren't any goblin pilots lead by the Force to penetrate the shields. The actual turning point for me was levelling that 50% global speed sustain. It nuked my mana to sub-200 at first, but it was so totally worth it - this basically meant I got first strike in nearly every single fight, and the ones I didn't - against paradox mages - the morons sent me out of time and wasted all their cooldowns while I was invulnerable. Every fight against a caster was basically autoexplore -> AOE stun -> nuke. In the end I was hitting for about 600 in melee too, so I could spice things up a bit.

The most horrifying fight in the entire game was against the boss in the Charred Scar, who has the Wildfire tree and I didn't have the fire damage penetration then. I had to backpedal nearly a third of the way, running, entombing myself, and running again. I took only 100 turns on the counter to get to the boss [I specifically got a movement infusion for that fight, since I was scared I wouldn't make it], and probably half an hour fighting him. It was really the peak of my experience with this character, honestly, and quite a memorable fight.

It was pretty fun, but it took way too long to get going and I only got to feel powerful in the most boring part of the game. I'll probably get one more win in and close Tome4 up for a while, since it is pretty repetitive, all in all, and the end-game is really the worst part of the game.

Wonder if Cursed are still as god-awfully boring as I remember them? Or I might get a non-antimagic berserker and  go for Irresistible Fun. I do have that one Oozemancer, but I'm not having that much fun, since he's way too powerful already, and things probably won't get harder.

Archmage trip report :

Dear Diary, today I died 3 times in the Dark Crypt. Because I am bad at pattern recognition. Even when the pattern is "Those 4 level 45 elite elven guards deleted you in one turn in melee. Resurrect and go stand next to them again Y/N?"

I also got to the east, but I only have one life remaining, and I don't really feel that comfortable with my character. Finally I do decent damage, since I found a randart staff with +36% fire damage, and with Wildfire and such I can at least clear stuff pretty fast. Single target damage is bad, prodigies are bad - went for Unbreakable Will, since I had nothing else worth going for.

If I die in the Vor Armoury I'll probably give up on this character, since I'm sort of tired of losing so much time to only die 4/5ths of the game completed.

At least I'm sort of starting to realise some of the mistakes I'm making and kind of try to avoid them in future situations.

Playing a mage in DCSS is still a lot more fun [except for Paradox Mage, that shit's wack]. I guess it's mostly because the spells feel more impactful and there aren't stupid LoS shenanigans, and a turn doesn't take 5 seconds and I don't have to constantly monitor 7 sustains.

Actually IIRC all rares and possibly uniques, are generated as Adventurers. And I was certain the Solipsist talents were excluded from the Adventurer class, since solipsist rares were also bullshit, but I just went and made an Adventurer, and they aren't? So I guess I'm finally going insane.

It would still be either a matter of excluding certain oozemancer talents, or possibly just limiting the maximum level of Oozemancer talents on the Adventurer to, say, level 3, if you wanted to balance oozemancer rares.

But yes, some rares are so much more powerful than others, running into the wrong type can absolutely crush your character.

Wow... I guess resistances ARE fucking important.

Beat the crap out of the master, 3 shotted him each time, then went into the Dark Crypt and lost all of my lives. All of them. Except I guess one? Something like that. I guess I still need incredibly overpowered regen infusions to do anything in this game.

Gonna cheat-unlock myself oozemancer again [never did manage to unlock it normally] because that was insane. Lesson learned - ignore everything else when going into the crypt except for resistances. God damn elven shitmancers. I keep wasting so much time dying in the crypt I should long since know better.

edit : Started my Oozemancer, swept through the trollmire, already feeling so good. I will rain acidic vengeance upon the Dark Crypt oh yes my precious filthy elvesesses

Oh, huh. Guess I dodged a bullet then, because I certainly wouldn't have liked to fight any sort of even vaguely OP boss with this nice Arcane Blade that's been going on. Thanks a ton for the info, people, will bear it in mind for future encounters.

Currently level 28, clearing out Dreadfell. Arcane Blades are definitely amazing. I only wish they were a bit tougher, but all manner of explosions with every attack, one and two-shooting uniques left and right, and bright colourful effects and I'm so happy. The guy whose build I'm copying -> this one -> has gotten both shield prodigies, but since he beat the game on Nightmare Roguelike with an AB, and I can barely get to the east, I'll assume he knows what he's doing and do the same.

After this I'm definitely playing an Oozemancer, though. I just want to be OP, and whoever designed the Oozemancer knows how to make a [ridiculously] powerful and yet still fun class, because Cursed is probably even more OP, but dear god don't get me started on Cursed. That or a Wyrmic, depending on whether I feel like melee. Hell, maybe even both!

IIRC you can now upgrade the cloak to work from your inventory when you take possession of the Sher'Tul fortress.

Nowadays I just can't exist with an experience penalty, though. Thalore and Skeleton are incredibly powerful races but what's that is that a 40% experience penalty oh I think someone's calling me for business over at Cornacsville.

So... apparently in the previous version of Tome I had,  an option was either bugged, or somehow turned off [in which case I'd love to know how to turn it back off].

When I got tired of Assault endlessly asking me if I really want to target myself, I finally clicked yes. Because in the previous version it plain wouldn't do anything, at least with melee abilities.

Not in the newest version! My Arcane Blade boldly stood up against the coming darkness, and smacked himself in the head for about 3 times the total HP I had. Dumbest death I've had in a while.

Welp, I did it. My reaver is 42 and in the Prides.

My game is finally turned into an endless shitstorm of 1 frame per second and spending 9 out of 10 turns staring at a black screen because I'll be fucked if I know how to gain Blindness immunity and the orcs know it and revel in my misery as they spam sun infusions and fuck you Tome 4 whoever designed this is so far removed from the concept of fun he exists on an entirely different dimension.

Also apparently my saves are bad, and I don't know whether to prioritize resistances, or status resistances, or saves, or armour, or penetration, so my confusion immunity is 20% and the precious few turns I can see what is going on I have to do that through a smudged filter as if someone with really greasy skin has been rolling over my laptop.

I also messed up a bit at the Vor Armoury and currently have only 1 life left, and no Blood of Life, so I probably won't be winning a Reaver this time.

Ugh.