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[Tnx]

Hi all.  Haven't played this game for about 2~ years, have a question.  I remember that the only way to "grind" for loot and XP was to hunt adventurer bands, since dungeons did not respawn monsters.  Is this still the case?

[Robsoie]

Instead of hunting adventurer (you get only very few XP from them actually) you can use the Farportal from your Fortress .
It will generate essentially randomly generated small dungeons/enemies/items/boss for you to grind , more XP than hunting bunch of adventurers. You can get into the Farportal as much as you want if you have the accumulated energy from it

[Tnx]

Oh nice!  How do you accumulate energy?

[Robsoie]

When you acquire this very usefull item :
http://te4.org/wiki/Transmogrification_Chest

Note: once you have acquired this item, it will be unlocked and will be available from the start for every new characters you'll create and play.

[Frumple]

Advn. parties are still fine for loot and gold grinding, though, especially earlier on (one of the earliest semi-reliable sources of blues and purples, really). Pretty excellent for it, if you can survive them. Even better, the loot you feed into the chest after killing them helps build up energy for more farportals, ha.

But yeah, still no respawning in dungeons. Once you've cleared it, it stays clear. Farportals are just a source of infinite new dungeons (though the boss from 'em will eventually luck out and generate as something that can kill you, so...).

[Robsoie]

Oh and while i remember, visiting Farportal have a chance to generate "something" related to the game lore

[Robsoie]

I decided to go to the Dark Crypt ... lost another life ... damn.
But i managed to save Melinda (thanks a lot to some leather boots that can allow an extra Rush).

As a reward her father gave me the Spellhunt Remnant gauntlets !
Great ! ... hey wait a minute i'm playing an Arcane Blade, antimagic stuff is extremely bad on them disrupting own spells ...
Sigh.

Oh at least i got to level 25, will farportal a bit to get to level 26 before going to fight the Master.

[Robsoie]

All was well in the farportal, found a nicer shield rune and got to level 26.
Now let's see the boss.
Hmm, he has a golem, he got alchemist powers, let's be cautious.
Hmm, what's that around me, it looks like ... mucus, no ! don't tell me that's an ...
Following turn, character dead, insta killed by a couple of slime shots that dealt near to 400 multi-elements damage each.

Yeah, the worst possible outcome, a boss Oozemancer and that does multi-elements instead of nature only (though at that level of damage by turn i doubt he needed to use multi elements).

I gave up there, not enough live left to reasonnably think of investing more time into that character.

But still even at level 26 , Flurry , while doing good damage, didn't delivered the awesome level of pain on my enemies that my marauder was doing while he was at level 26.

[Tnx]

I started as a shalore shadowblade.  Died so many times in the crystal starting dungeon...

[Robsoie]

I think Shadowblade have access to Rush, take that skill, it helps to reach those dangerous at low level damaging living crystals.

In my opinion a good sequence of zones to follow for the beginning is there , with some change depending on how strong your character is :
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=78614.msg4835958;topicseen#msg4835958

that will help maximizing your character survival, Scintillating Cave is a starting dungeon for Shalore, but i advice you exit from it and keep it for later, when you got some more level , at level 1 some of the cristal are highly damaging.

I'm currently giving a try at a no-minion necromancer, using a Cornac so i progress in level faster to reach some good offensive skills.

So far i did Trollmire + Bill and from level 1 i reached level 7 , no experience malus is indeed very good.
Poor bill, i just learned 2 level of Impending Doom and it was enough with a Darkness beam to kill him.

Funny thing, i'm really glad i took a couple of Blurred Immortality levels, as i used for the 1st time ever Chill of the Tomb (never used that in my minion-focused Necromancer i played up to now).
I accidentally didn't checked the area of effect and shot myself with my enemies with it.

Without Blurred Immortality my character was insta killed by that powerfull spell , as i went below 0 health.

It was indeed a great choice to get that skill

[Frumple]

Yeah... shalore are kinda' flimsy to begin with, and most of the rogue metaclass critters have it pretty rough until they can get some better daggers, which makes doing trollmire regardless of starting zone first (if possible, anyway) usually the best idea. Especially if you actually luck into a decent defense item on top of the dex you're probably pumping, since Bill has terrible accuracy.

So leaving the scint. caves for later is usually a good idea with rogue type shalore. Melee ones in general, really. Once you get used to the crystals, it's not like it's impossible to clear it out on the first go, but... it's usually more trouble than it's worth. Personally, I usually hit up the shalore elf zones last, before going on to the tier two stuff. Clear out the stuff near derth and the thalore area junk, then tap the zones with oodles of casters, heh.

[Graven]

Welp, guess who was just about to brag about doing the Dark Crypt without dying and without any relevant resistances! Was, but isn't, because I misclicked and a dude oneshot me as I enthusiastically ran past him instead of smacking him on the head. Highfive, Rob 

4 deaths so far, just starting Reknor, gonna be 30 soon. Still, dual wield AB is getting into the swing of things - doing a bit better with the damage. I got to level 10 only using the starting points, so I could take the points from Flame and Lightning out, which seems to have worked out. I guess you could also take them out and put them in every level, but two offensive spells let me play like a worse Archmage and since I was Cornac I could get to level 10 without too much difficulties.

Too many stupid deaths, though, if I die again pre-prides I'll probably abandon as I've wasted a whole day on Tome as it is.

edit : Whelp



This is a single cast of flurry at level 30. Which reminds me, if I get the strength to get a prodigy via items, and then remove the items, do I still keep the prodigy? Or do I need to constantly have 50 str to use flexible combat, because I can't tell in-game.

[Robsoie]

Yes, prodigies are forever, even if you got them only thanks to items you're not wearing anymore.

You're having much better result than me with that arcane blade, good job !

My minion-less cornac necromancer is so far doing good, reached level 19 without dying once, well i mean without losing a live, because i couldn't believe how much time i went under 0 health and only because i have blurred mortality maxed i survived (and i'm sure several time i may have been very close to the lowest negative health limit).

That's probably the first time i get under 0 health so much with a character, despite i'm trying to be cautious. I hope to get level 20 in the halfling complex ruins so i can unlock the staff combat tree i got in Angolwen, i really could use another fast cooldown spell and the 1st and 2nd skill of that tree always served me very well for this when i was playing archimage.

Can't believe i played ToME4 most of that day.

[Tnx]

Thank you for the tips Robsoie.  I also did not realize that I could have just taken the up stairs on that crystal cave starting dungeon.  Oh well, now I know.

[Darkmere]

Don't pay a cat point on staff combat, you can just pay 500 gold to unlock the category at the same place you learned it.

Also, blurred mortality is completely amazing effective HP for the points spent. Worth all 5, definitely. And don't make the mistake I did of waiting on lichform if at all possible. Drop 5 points into it as soon as possible then suicide for it, because you get +3 HP per level but it's NOT retroactive (I misread the talent).

EDIT: Derp, I meant to ask a question. Does the newly buffed Rune of Reflection work like a regular shield rune (completely absorb X damage) or like the Alchemist golem's reflective skin (which still took the damage, just sent an equal amount back afterward)?