New player

[Mino]

I just got to level 22 with my new game character, and most of my level ups have gone towards AD, with a little into AC. I used my last 2 skill points for Weapon Accuracy and Hard Hit, so the one I get at level 24 can be used for Cleave. After that its Combat Speed for level 28 & 32. After that, I want to give Evasion a shot in this build.

I'm waiting to have a max AP of 12 before going to the Iqhan caves or over the the Prim/BWM side of the collapsed mine.

Edit (3/23): Got to level 24 and used my skill point on Cleave, and had a change of plans on waiting for Combat Speed 2 before going past the collapsed mine to do the Prim and Blackwater Mountain quests. If I was able to do it my first game with 10AP, I should be ok, especially with skills and equipment I didn't have before (Regeneration, Corpse Eater, Cleave, critical hit gear if I want to switch to a build using the Villain's blade, etc.). So far so good.

I'm planning to make this character as "good" as possible, based on what I already know about the quests. But in some cases I don't think either side is more good or evil than the other.

Vacor vs Unzel: its not clear if the Shadow is good or not (some of its followers definitely aren't) so creating a vortex to get rid of it doesn't necessarily make Vacor a bad guy. And Unzel is a double crossing thief, so he's not exactly a good guy. I sided with Vacor (just like my main game).

Prim vs Blackwater Mountain: both leaders have plans to attack each other, so this comes down to what I get out of siding with each. Thanks to the Regeneration and Corpse Eater skills, a bed for rest isn't as important, so it comes down to which I want more: ability to buy speed potions (side with Prim) and Gutherburd's ring (the AC and AD aren't as good as Villain's ring but the +20HP could come in handy) or the barbed dagger. The dagger would really just be for fun to give monsters bleeding wounds and I don't want Blackwater Misery, but I want the speed potion access, so I'm siding with Prim again but this time I'm going for the kill (in my main game I let the BWM leader run away).

The more clear cut ones: I gave the real swords to the guards at the Floaming flask, put the bells on the sheep but didn't kill them, kill and reported Buceth, and I'll put Bgour's dagger back where it belongs.

Its still probably not as hard for me because I know from experience what gear is good for various builds. This is my first character to still have the Venomous dagger because I sold it off the first time I played. I bought the Villain's blade since it has a 3x critical multiplier along with Troublemaker's gloves, Villain's leather armor, and a pair of Polished ring of backstabbing and it came in handy.

Saving up for the Jewel of Fallhaven took a while too, but thanks to Regeneration and Corpse Eater, I wasn't as reliant on meat and health potions (regular or minor) so I was able to sell off more of those than when I first played through and there wasn't a skill system.

So far its been pretty fun going through it all from the beginning but this time with the skill system in place. I imagine a new game might be more difficult after the next update because the critical hit system was going to be revised so that its not as powerful, and I relied on that for a few of the quests after I had the venomous dagger and then Flagstone's pride.

At the level I'm at now, I've found the Izthiel bridges to be a good place to grind for XP - generally around 175 which is more than the Gargoyle trainers and masters, and you get more gold selling the rings they drop compared to the ruby gems. And 100 gold for every 20 Izthiel claw sold to the merchant in that trading post.

[nyktos]

Great post Mino!

An excellent read for players of all experence levels, in my opinion anyway...

I love reading about other builds and the insights of other players.

And detailed too. +1!!!

[fiernaq]

*Shakes fist at Mino* you level too fast for me

I'd be interested to hear what your stats are now to see how different our builds actually are. I just updated my sig.

At level 18 now, I have Increased Fortitude, Regeneration, Weapon Accuracy, and Corpse Eater in that order but I plan to put my next points into Hard Hit and Cleave and then the next two into Combat Speed. I fight bare handed along with the JoF which gives me 5 hits and I've been mainly working on AC and AD on level ups. The only monsters that give me any trouble are ones that crit especially when they attack first because with 52 HP I can generally survive the first round so if I go first that gives me 10 total attacks to kill them. I'm running around the Gargoyle cave now picking up small rocks and hopefully other, slightly more legendary items and almost never have to eat anything unless I run into a string of crits from several of the shadow gargoyles.

As far as equipment goes:
Leather Cap BC6%
Hardened Leather Shirt BC5% DR1
Jewel of Fallhaven AP-1
2x Villain's Ring AC25% AD3-6 HP+4
Fine Gloves of Swift Attack AC17% BC-9%
Vacor's Boots of Attack AC9% BC2%

Most of the bosses so far have been pretty easy, it's only crit heavy monsters that cause me any trouble at all. As can be seen from my gear, I sided with Vacor, gave fake swords to foaming flask tavern, killed all the sheep, sided with Buceth and the shadow, and told Minarra that the rogues (s)he saw were not the outlaws. (Yes, I killed the demon on the bridge, just took a bunch of meat with me when I did it). I've cleared flagstaff prison a few times, snake caves a gazillion times, wolf cave a few times, the pit cave by Jan several times, the caterpillar cave a bunch, the gargoyle cave a handful of times... I've made it to the base of the stairs below Blackwater mountain (past flagstaff prison), to the house on the road past the gargoyle cave, and just to the other side of the bridge with the demon near the other entrance to the Blackwater area. At this point I guess I should probably just stay in the gargoyle caves till I either get a RoLs or two or until I hit level 32, whichever comes first.

My question now is, would you recommend I keep going for more AC or just focus on AD so that if even one of my 5 attacks hits them I'll one shot them? And is there any way to prevent monsters from getting the first attack or can you only mitigate that by not accidentally walking past them a couple of times due to the blasted control system

[Mino]

*Shakes fist at Mino* you level too fast for me

I'd be interested to hear what your stats are now to see how different our builds actually are. I just updated my sig.

I got to level 30 yesterday, but even though I'd like Combat Speed 2, I'm considering just waiting for the update on this character too. The fastest way to get to level 32 would be grinding in the Iqhan caves, but doing that with my main character got boring which is why I started a new game to begin with. I've already done all the complete-able quests and killed all the bosses (the Iqhan boss was tough but I bought 30 vials of the minor potion of speed before leaving Prim, and already had Combat Speed 1 before entering the caves).

Anyway, here's my stats.
Level 30
Base stats: HP 60, AC 100%, AD 20 (no base block chance)
Skills (all level 1): Increased Fortitude (at lvl 5), Regeneration (at lvl 8), Corpse Eater (at lvl 12), Weapon Accuracy (at lvl 16), Hard Hit (at lvl 20), Cleave (at lvl 24), Combat Speed (at lvl 28)

Constant gear: Leather cap, Jewel of Fallhaven, Woodcutter's boots

Quickstrike build:
Quickstrike dagger, Villain's ring x2, Fine gloves of swift attack, Superior hard leather armour, Crude wooden buckler
Stats: HP 69, Attack cost 2, AC 202%, AD 27-33, BC 1%
Stats w/o Quickstrike dagger: AC 182%, BC 21% (I went for the higher AC at the cost of lower BC, which is generally fine as long as I attack first)

Critical hit build:
Dagger of the Shadow priests, Polished ring of backstabbing x2, Troublemaker's gloves, Villain's leather armour, Crude wooden buckler
Stats: HP 62, Attack cost 3, AC 180%, AD 30-31, CC 41%, CM 3.0, BC 34%

Power hitter build:
Balanced steel sword, Villain's ring x2, Leather gloves of attack, Champion's chain mail, Superior wooden shield
Stats: HP 74, Attack cost 3, AC 197%, AD 30-40, BC 45%

But for now since I only have combat speed 1, I'm using the Quickstrike build since I can cleave an extra 2 attacks against a mob of 2.

[lady black]

To try to get the first attack, move in next to the monster and immediately touch it or the tile behind it. If the monster is standing still, a sliding touch to move your character "into and through" the monster is usually successful. If the monster is running away, try to touch one tile in front of it as you chase it, to attack from behind and make it stand and fighte. If a monster respawns adjacent to you, you have usually been hit before you even know it is there. If the monster moves up next to you may be able to tap it fast enough to get the first attack. Supposedly, if you move next to the monster, you get first attack; but I have often been tapping the monster as quickly as possible after closing in on it, only to find I have already been hit twice!
Good luck!

[Mino]

I plan to get all 4 level of Evasion on my main game, after first getting Corpse Eater. And I'll probably do the same for my new game after Combat Speed 2. Hopefully that will help me get first strike more often.

[nyktos]

Yeah, I like evasion on well-rounded builds...
(when I'm not sure what to take next)

I've only had it up to 2 but even then, it felt like I was striking first more often.
even "flat-footed" (terminology from other games)

[fiernaq]

My biggest problem isn't the closing in, it's the hitting. I could be standing 2 squares away in a straight line and tap directly on the monster but with my fat thumb I end up running beside the monster instead and of course after circling around him a few times I usually end up getting hit.
. . . . .
X . H .
. . . . .

. . . . .
. X H .
. . . . .

. . . . .
. . . H .
. . . X .

. . . . .
. . . H X
. . . . .

. . . X .
. . . H .
. . . . .

WHAMMO, I just got hit.

(X is me, H is the monster)

I really need a better control system than touch... maybe if I had a stylus or a physical keyboard it wouldn't be so bad

[Mino]

I do the accidental runaround way too often myself. If I get hit first, depending on how badly, I just reload and try again.

[Sarumar]

I plan to get all 4 level of Evasion on my main game, after first getting Corpse Eater. And I'll probably do the same for my new game after Combat Speed 2. Hopefully that will help me get first strike more often.

Tip only for you my fried Mino

take evasion 3 , bigger is not better