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Author Topic: Tome 4: Tales of Maj'Eyal  (Read 473294 times)

Mephansteras

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Re: Tome 4: Tales of Maj'Eyal
« Reply #525 on: August 29, 2012, 03:49:09 pm »

If I remember correctly you can turn any gem you find into alchemist gems. I don't remember the exact skill used to do it, but look through your skills. It's there somewhere.
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Frumple

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Re: Tome 4: Tales of Maj'Eyal
« Reply #526 on: August 29, 2012, 04:13:59 pm »

Yeah, it's "create alchemist gems". Unique alchie talent, you start off with it. It eats a normal gem and turns it into a few dozen alchemist gems. You can get normal gems either by picking them up off the ground or by extracting them from metal items (specifically melee weapons (barring whips), shields, massive and heavy armor, and any of the metal hats/gloves/boots. Lanterns or rings don't work.) with extract gems, in the stone alchemy tree.

Things to note about alchie gems is that each one has a different effect and, very importantly, higher tier alchie gems do more base bomb damage (though the additional effect may offset things a bit -- amethysts will do about the same damage as most tier three gems, ferex). There's a list of bomb effects somewhere on the wiki, I think. E: Right here, actually.
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Re: Tome 4: Tales of Maj'Eyal
« Reply #527 on: August 29, 2012, 05:17:12 pm »

If I remember correctly you can turn any gem you find into alchemist gems. I don't remember the exact skill used to do it, but look through your skills. It's there somewhere.
Yeah, it's "create alchemist gems". Unique alchie talent, you start off with it. It eats a normal gem and turns it into a few dozen alchemist gems. You can get normal gems either by picking them up off the ground or by extracting them from metal items (specifically melee weapons (barring whips), shields, massive and heavy armor, and any of the metal hats/gloves/boots. Lanterns or rings don't work.) with extract gems, in the stone alchemy tree.

Things to note about alchie gems is that each one has a different effect and, very importantly, higher tier alchie gems do more base bomb damage (though the additional effect may offset things a bit -- amethysts will do about the same damage as most tier three gems, ferex). There's a list of bomb effects somewhere on the wiki, I think. E: Right here, actually.

Yeah, right after I started a new game the talent finally showed up. It wasn't showing up before when I first tried to play an alchemist and in fact the first three times I tried loading the client and tried doing anything the game itself crashed to desktop. But now everything works fine and I'm back on track again.

I'm playing a Higher Alchemist and doing okay so far. Roguelike mode kind of screwed me over a bit so I went into Adventure mode. Somewhere along the way I unlocked the Summoner class however, which was kind of interesting.

...At least I learned from the first and so far only time I played in roguelike mode to like with other roguelikes I play not underestimate this game just because I start feeling even the slightest bit confident. The number one cause of death for my characters in any roguelike is overconfidence or really confidence of any kind, so I'm going to have to keep that in mind again.

Either way this game is going to be something I waste a lot of time on in the coming weeks. Thanks for this thread and thanks for your help.

EDIT - Got a score of 94 with a level 9 Higher Alchemist on my second go throughout the game. I'm wondering though what kind of a build would work well for me. I'm thinking something with the alchemist that has a high direct damage output combined with high magic, dexterity and willpower as to further boost spell damage and provide some additional protection as well.

If I could throw in something that might add stealth and ease of movement like how I do in ADOM, Dungeons and Dragons, ELONA or even Morrowind I would probably be set. I do real well with a hybridization of a glass cannon and an escape artist, so if you have suggestions on how I could do that with a Higher Alchemist in ToME I would appreciate it.
« Last Edit: August 30, 2012, 03:47:59 am by dei »
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Robsoie

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Re: Tome 4: Tales of Maj'Eyal
« Reply #528 on: August 30, 2012, 05:40:20 am »

At least these ones do not even try to hide the fact they're overpowered :D
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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Frumple

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Re: Tome 4: Tales of Maj'Eyal
« Reply #529 on: August 30, 2012, 08:11:56 am »

Yeah, that's the Room of Death. There's a cheevo for killing those buggers. Most combos can't manage it, especially when they first walk in to the vor armory. Come back when you're 50 :P

As for escape methods on an alchie, you can itemize for it a bit. Double up or teleportation runes or go tele/movement infusion, get ahold of some escape items. Natively, you've got gem portal which is kinda' anemic but sometimes useful. Dwarves have a similar talent for their forth racial, so you can kinda' stack it if you're feeling like it. Shalore get a global speed boost from their first racial talent, which can help a lil'. Everything else with some movement options (Yeeks, ghouls, though the latter involves some trade offs) is probably locked to you, currently. Then there's a talent or two dealing with golem movement (invoke and some kind of swap-position, iirc) which can help a little, sometimes.

As for builds, the general alchemist build I use is an initial class point into golem power, then the rest into gem bomb until it hits 4/5 and alchemist protection opens up. Then I stuff every class point I get into alchemist protection until that maxes, and then the rest into the third tier bomb talent until that maxes. Usually a point into golem resilience in there somewhere. After that, things get friskier depending on what I'm doing, but that's my basic "get me through old forest" build. Ignoring generic investment, anyway :P

The big thing is that with maxed out alchie protection and the radius boosting talent, you don't need to invest in dexterity. Literally the other thing points in dex does for an alchie is increase your bomb throw range (at a rate of one per twenty dex, iirc)... and with the maxed radius booster, you hit out to a max of ten anyway, which is enough to get you through pretty much the whole game. Defense wise, constitution is going to get you a lot more bang for your buck than dex (defense in particular is a pretty crappy, well, defensive stat in T4. Especially if you can't stack it pretty high, which alchies can't.). Standard stat spread, f'me at least, is to max out magic, and then alternate between con and willpower, keeping them even. Usually do this until I'm comfortable with my mana pool (not too hard, as alchies don't need terribly much compared to other mana classes) then switch to con/cunning, for the crit boost (which is small, but more helpful than mana I'll never need).
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Re: Tome 4: Tales of Maj'Eyal
« Reply #530 on: August 30, 2012, 11:51:13 am »

Yeah, that's the Room of Death. There's a cheevo for killing those buggers. Most combos can't manage it, especially when they first walk in to the vor armory. Come back when you're 50 :P

I read about that on the wiki this morning. It sounds Fun. Also, the name reminds me of Kobolds Ate My Baby for some reason - oh wait I know why! ALL HAIL KING TORG! ALL HAIL VOR!

As for escape methods on an alchie, you can itemize for it a bit. Double up or teleportation runes or go tele/movement infusion, get ahold of some escape items. Natively, you've got gem portal which is kinda' anemic but sometimes useful...

That sounds pretty good...

Dwarves have a similar talent for their forth racial, so you can kinda' stack it if you're feeling like it.

I know that this forum is the drunk midget capital of the world but I always feel iffy about playing a Dwarf in any game. I'm a little superstitious about the whole dexterity bit that seems to plague them in every game I see them in. I'll give them a shot though, once I think of a - oh god now I have another use for my favorite drunk midget Sodel Athelod, thanks!

Shalore get a global speed boost from their first racial talent, which can help a lil'.

I played a Shalore in my third run and to be honest with you I don't like how they gain experience so slowly while being so frail. Then again usually if I play (non-dark)elves it's as a class that when converted to ToME would be either Archer or Archmage - either the woodland sniper or the haughty and overpowered glass cannon.

I don't see myself playing a Shalore as an Alchemist because of that and how their first quest is made harder than that of the human castes due to their experience penalty and frail bodies. The whole reason I tried Shalore is it gave me the stats I was wanting in higher quantities than the Higher, but I missed that sense of stability and the nice recovery infusions too.

...I could give it another go though sometime soon. Shield was pretty nice.

Everything else with some movement options (Yeeks, ghouls, though the latter involves some trade offs) is probably locked to you, currently.

I don't like the thought of playing the undead or a yeek anyways so it's alright. Reading up on the yeek at least made me think of them as Scientologists. If I were a ranger they would be the hated enemy I picked at level one. Either them or monstrous humanoids.

Ghoul did sound okay though from what I was reading on the wiki, though personally skeleton sounds nicer. Probably because I like bone as a material.

Then there's a talent or two dealing with golem movement (invoke and some kind of swap-position, iirc) which can help a little, sometimes.

I'm starting to use my golem to scout. I also somehow managed to get my golem to learn Stone Touch after escorting an alchemist, which makes for some interesting battles. Since his acquisition of the skill he's been defeated about once and once only.

As for builds, the general alchemist build I use is an initial class point into golem power, then the rest into gem bomb until it hits 4/5 and alchemist protection opens up. Then I stuff every class point I get into alchemist protection until that maxes, and then the rest into the third tier bomb talent until that maxes. Usually a point into golem resilience in there somewhere. After that, things get friskier depending on what I'm doing, but that's my basic "get me through old forest" build. Ignoring generic investment, anyway :P

It sounds like a good build. So far I've maxed out the whole gem bomb and barely started the whole bomb protection bit in favor of beefing up the golem's offense and defense. I didn't even realize I could level the little bastard up either, but now Jean-Claude van Damn he's fine. Next talent point he gets is going into Taunt to draw further aggro away from Aldeen (my Higher Alchemist).

The big thing is that with maxed out alchie protection and the radius boosting talent, you don't need to invest in dexterity. Literally the other thing points in dex does for an alchie is increase your bomb throw range (at a rate of one per twenty dex, iirc)... and with the maxed radius booster, you hit out to a max of ten anyway, which is enough to get you through pretty much the whole game.

Like I mentioned, I'm kind of superstitious about wizards and dexterity. It's out of habits brought on since my introduction to Dungeons and Dragons in the 6th grade that I've made sure every single wizard I play in a game has above average dexterity, in order to avoid being hit as often.

In fact I make sure any build I play ends up having good dexterity for that reason, though then again I tend to shy towards wizards, rogues, and the occasional ranger or cleric. It's what I do for every game that will let me do such a thing.

However...

Defense wise, constitution is going to get you a lot more bang for your buck than dex (defense in particular is a pretty crappy, well, defensive stat in T4. Especially if you can't stack it pretty high, which alchies can't.). Standard stat spread, f'me at least, is to max out magic, and then alternate between con and willpower, keeping them even. Usually do this until I'm comfortable with my mana pool (not too hard, as alchies don't need terribly much compared to other mana classes) then switch to con/cunning, for the crit boost (which is small, but more helpful than mana I'll never need).

This I agree with very much. When I first made the post asking for advice I didn't know much about the stats but now I'm putting points into what you've mentioned. Just a little less consistently for the constitution and the cunning, but then again I'm new so I'm bound to make mistakes.

Luckily one of Aldeen's equips raises health by forty points, so she's not as squishy as her previous incarnation from the first run. Of course it also helps that I had her spend most of her gold on a wizard's regeneration infusion - I almost said inscription and then inception because I'm running on caffeine and no sleep - that restores a hundred and fifty health over five turns.

I did screw up on the whole wild infusion and put one in that removes magical ailments, but then again I have more problems with being frozen or what-not on rare occasions than being poisoned frequently now that I can have Aldeen recover thirty hit points a turn for five turns.

Now if only her golem would stop stepping on poison spores and flooding the motherfucking room with toxins. Anyways, thanks for the advice. I'll give Dwarf Alchemist a shot and I'll try Shalore Alchemist again too. I'll start raising constitution and cunning a little more often as well, especially since that cunning tree I don't remember the name of seems like it would be perfect to throw in there sometime.
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beorn080

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Re: Tome 4: Tales of Maj'Eyal
« Reply #531 on: August 30, 2012, 10:38:34 pm »

Alright, I suck. What does one do to open up the various birth options by editing? I find myself annoyed at the prospect of having to get a bunch of achievements again and I want to try skeletons/ghouls/paradox mages.
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Frumple

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Re: Tome 4: Tales of Maj'Eyal
« Reply #532 on: August 30, 2012, 10:58:44 pm »

Try this... it might be a few is several versions out of date, but I don't think it'll have any problems. I think that's all the races/classes, but there's a few minor things still locked, I believe. Newer stuff, like the transmutation chest on birth and junk.

If it doesn't work, and no one beats me to a more effective version, I'll run through it again tomorrow with something actually functioning; I'm quoting myself from quite a while back on an iPad, so I don't have access to the t4 computer to actually double check things :P

Spoiler: unlocking the easy way (click to show/hide)
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Seriyu

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Re: Tome 4: Tales of Maj'Eyal
« Reply #533 on: August 31, 2012, 05:04:16 am »

So downloaded this game again, as I tend to do every few months, and now when I switch from say, youtube, to the ToME window, the ToME window doesn't display correctly. (It displays what was on the browser previously, like say, a single frame of a video).

I wanna give the game a shot again, especially since I've heard once you beat the first few "basic" dungeons you get a new birth option that lets you skip them or something? Maybe that was a rumor. But this makes it pretty hard to well, play.

Anyone know a fix?

Frumple

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Re: Tome 4: Tales of Maj'Eyal
« Reply #534 on: August 31, 2012, 05:33:22 am »

Yeah, the unfocus freeze thing is... kind of a known issue. That's been plaguing T4 since like, beta three or something. Long bloody while, though it's currently a little less finicky than it has been in the past. Bit of a nuisance, particularly bad when you're running video or flash in the window you swap to. Less strenuous stuff is less likely to cause it to buggerup, but yeah :-\ If there's a surefire fix other than "don't swap windows" I haven't noticed it, unfortunately. You can usually manage forum browsing and chatting and stuff... just not flash, or video. I've never really managed to get a comment from DG about it other than stuff along the lines of "T4 is a jealous master" :P There's a couple threads about it on the T4 forum, though, if you feel like reading up a bit on it.

As for the birth option... no, not so much. You do get to start off with the transmutation chest, and you can certainly skip some or (if you're really on the ball) all of the tier one dungeons, but there's nothing that starts you off at, say, level ten with a decent kit spread and the first tier dungeons locked. You do manage to unlock a couple of other campaign modes that offer some quicker action, particularly arena mode. Infinite dungeon is fun, but brutal and a half, especially if you don't leave the vaults the hell alone :P

It'd probably be pretty possible to code up an add-on for dungeon skip/accelerated start stuff, though. Not my cup of tea (terrible at coding), but someone could probably manage it.
« Last Edit: August 31, 2012, 05:35:08 am by Frumple »
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Re: Tome 4: Tales of Maj'Eyal
« Reply #535 on: August 31, 2012, 06:13:54 am »

Awwww to both. Oh well. I'll buzz around and see what other people have to say about it.

Robsoie

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Re: Tome 4: Tales of Maj'Eyal
« Reply #536 on: August 31, 2012, 06:51:37 am »

Was in my 7th Farportal run (and still have 300 fortress energy) , this time my brawler is at level 43

And he met an unbeatable foe, even more than an "overpowered wyrm" unique from the armory
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Presented like this he seems to be hard but not invincible, but in gameplay :
- he deals more damage by turns than my regen+regen infusion+various high resistance+armor/hardiness+wild infusion+shield rune+healingnexus (got the equilibrium skills from eating the sand worm queen heart) can heal me, and enough so it can destroy my level 43 character in 5 or 6 turns.
- he casts from time to time Impending Doom, meaning that you must teleport away while you still have enough health to wait for the Impending Doom to disappear by itself (as it blocks the healing and regen runes you'll be losing health like crazy even out of his sight considering it last for at leats 10 turns)
- he has various powers that make a huge list of crippling malus for your character each turns (so your equilibrium skills and wild infusion that will help in 1 turn will just see him rethrowing the malus list next turn) that basically make you deal insanely small damage to him and render your protections basically useless
- if you stay too much time in front of him, i don't know what power it is, but he will block your teleport rune (and then you're dead considering previous points)
- despite he takes very few damage (due to your character damage output being crippled, evne if you deal damage he's not resistant to) he has great health regeneration, so much that in the most extremely lucky attempt i got on him, he was down to 65% of life remaining , i teleported to avoid sure death, then went back to him and he was already  healed to 95% in what was in fact just a few turns.
- during the battle he can feed on you to regenerate himself, like if he needed that :D and healing nexus apparently does -nothing- against that, he heals himself and healing nexus does not capture this healing back to you.

I would hate to meet that guy with a weaker character.
It was my last Farportal run, as the only way to survive was to Recall, and Recall "breaks the Farportal forever" unfortunately.
Though if at level 43 this guy can spawn, i would hate to see what else in the farportal runs will spawn in higher levels, as from my tries, i'm sure that monster can take the 4 "overpowered wyrms" :D

Too bad there isn't a test arena, i would have liked to pit him against the wyrm of playerkilling from past version
« Last Edit: August 31, 2012, 06:54:09 am by Robsoie »
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Frumple

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Re: Tome 4: Tales of Maj'Eyal
« Reply #537 on: August 31, 2012, 07:16:26 am »

Ahaha... that... actually looks kind of puny for a high end farportal boss. Just a 'zerker vampire lord? Obviously something else in there, but just another physical class and the native vampire talents. Middling as farportal bosses go. Which isn't really saying much, because it's not uncommon to run into farportal bosses that could break the endgame fight over their knee(s) and juggle the broken bodies as a means of casual amusement. Farportal bosses get mean.

But yeah, real fun is with stuff like forge giants, GMHWs, crap like the elite horrors... stuff like that, with some really nasty classes thrown in. Good luck against something like a doomed/solipsist forge giant or runed bone giant :P Those monsters can happily get over 10k HP (and multiple lives, in the case of the latter~) and stats/offensive capabilities like you wouldn't freaking believe. I've seen level 50 characters get flat-out instapopped, one round TKO, 3-4k HP gone in a blink, it's crazy. Also absolutely wonderful, but crazy nonetheless.

Anyway, moral of the story is that farportal runs will eventually kill you. No exceptions. You either stop or you die :P

The fun is in seeing how far you get before something splats you, heh. Seven goes is actually pretty good, especially if you're running them later in the game.
« Last Edit: August 31, 2012, 07:20:26 am by Frumple »
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Robsoie

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Re: Tome 4: Tales of Maj'Eyal
« Reply #538 on: August 31, 2012, 10:34:12 am »

I knew something was going on, as the game added an achievement when i entered that 7th farportal, and usually this kind of random achievement means that the game is going to try to kill you soon after :D
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Re: Tome 4: Tales of Maj'Eyal
« Reply #539 on: August 31, 2012, 10:40:55 am »

Anyone mind spoilering the Solipsist unlock? I did everything, including the god damn necromancer, but I hear it's a random unlock and stuff like that grinds my goat something fierce.
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