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[Toma]

Just finished the first level with 50700 points. And indeed, normal enemy levels on level 2. Level 2 should be easier now than level 1, since I also got enough experience on how to deal with monster zoos

 

[bryehn]

How many floors are in this? I've barely mapped 60% of the 1st after ±2.5 hours.

And it randomly generates the floors when you start a new game right? Still on my "first" run, regular difficulty with permadeath off.

 

[Toma]

How many floors are in this? I've barely mapped 60% of the 1st after ±2.5 hours.

And it randomly generates the floors when you start a new game right? Still on my "first" run, regular difficulty with permadeath off.

10. Yup should take you a while. And yeah, the floor is completely generated as soon as you start the floor. Enemies can always spawn more, though.

 

[Volodja]

How many floors are in this? I've barely mapped 60% of the 1st after ±2.5 hours.

And it randomly generates the floors when you start a new game right? Still on my "first" run, regular difficulty with permadeath off.

Yes, the floors are randomly assembled using a pool of premade rooms. The general structure of the single individual rooms is always the same but they change a little every run, from the position of the doors (but the spots they can be in are set) to the position of traps and chests (but dsome traps will always be in the same places).

 

[TP17]

Lived a charmed life as I said in post #720, I also defeated a named enemy where I was left on 1 health too. In the end however a different named enemy hit for over 20hp and killed me off on level 2 after I had already taken care of the monster zoo.

Was fun trying out some new skills.

Run 1 was a score of under 200, and run 3 was 200. Both times killed myself using the necro skill while surrounded by enemies.

 

[Toma]

Okay, floor 2 with my "full 1 full of enemies" char was waaay easier than floor one. Finished floor 2 tonight, 81.000 so far.

 

[Wallach]

Sorry I haven't checked in for a couple days. Father keeps trying to die on me.

After a really horrible day I did manage to sit down for a while just now and play a little, continuing on my first attempt following you guys with this build. I'm on floor 5 and I think I've hit critical mass, so I expect to full clear this run.

Is this evening (PST) enough time for everyone to finish up their attempts? How about 6 PM PST?

 

[KuroNeeko]

Sorry I haven't checked in for a couple days. Father keeps trying to die on me.

After a really horrible day I did manage to sit down for a while just now and play a little, continuing on my first attempt following you guys with this build. I'm on floor 5 and I think I've hit critical mass, so I expect to full clear this run.

Is this evening (PST) enough time for everyone to finish up their attempts? How about 6 PM PST?

Just speaking on behalf of myself - 6pm tonight will definitely NOT be enough time to finish everything. I'm still on my first run.

I imagine that I'll need at most - another 48 hours to finish everything up as I'll be coming into a big chunk of playtime around tomorrow night. If you want to go ahead though and call a close to the tournament, then that's fine too. I haven't had as much time to play this week and there's no sense in me holding everyone up.

 

[Toma]

Sorry I haven't checked in for a couple days. Father keeps trying to die on me.

After a really horrible day I did manage to sit down for a while just now and play a little, continuing on my first attempt following you guys with this build. I'm on floor 5 and I think I've hit critical mass, so I expect to full clear this run.

Is this evening (PST) enough time for everyone to finish up their attempts? How about 6 PM PST?

THIS evening? Werent we talking about a week for each contest?

You should definitely take time until the weekend. I am on floor 3 and roughly make 1 floor each day and I guess I am not the only one. I really think 1 week for each contest is fine.

 

[Houston3000]

Still on my second dude, unless I die EXTREMELY quickly (which is very possible actually) I won't be finished by tonight.

 

[KuroNeeko]

If anything, this build is pretty durable after XP level 1. I'm level 4 now and still on the first floor. Man, taking forever to clear it out.

Just curious, but about how many experience levels can you expect to earn over the course of a full game? Enough to max out all your skills or is it capped?

 

[Berksy]

I just finished the game... on elvish perma... with using save& quit bug 3 times.

My brain exploded when i think of arch diggles on going rogue.

Also melee builds should skip level 5 and 7. But 8 is like a heaven if you got enough armor.

I don't have any idea how to finish the game on Going Rogue without abusing the bugs after what i have seen on easy difficulty.

 

[KittenMaster]

Yeah, besides contest builds I am holding off on playing DoD until the next patch since all of the builds I want to use are bugged in some way.

 

[Wallach]

THIS evening? Werent we talking about a week for each contest?

You should definitely take time until the weekend. I am on floor 3 and roughly make 1 floor each day and I guess I am not the only one. I really think 1 week for each contest is fine.

A week is fine. I wasn't sure what people wanted since the first one was only 3 days.

So we'll make it Saturday evening then.

 

[Sye d'Burns]

First attempt for the contest. Final score? zero.



I clearly don't know what i'm doing with these skills.

A score of zero should be an achievement in itself. I salute you!

 

[Wallach]

It would be nice if the patch came out in time for the next contest run. Would make a bunch of melee oriented builds more playable.

 

[Toma]

A week is fine. I wasn't sure what people wanted since the first one was only 3 days.

So we'll make it Saturday evening then.

Perfect, thanks

 

[Houston3000]

My dude's trucking along hardcore. Cleared the zoo on the second floor, went to the 3rd floor, walked around a little bit but everything was dying so easily that I just skipped down to the 4th for better loot and everything still dying rapidly. I seemed to have tipped into the absurdly powerful category at some point. I have my entire action bar filled with wands; Fire Wands, Wands of Laser, a Tentacle Wand, Tesla Wand, etc... but they're mostly unused. Sometimes I walk around for ages without casting my wand refresh spell because everything is at 0 already.

Spoiler

Basically, my Magic Power is so high that my Nightmare Curse cost 3m, I regenerate 4m when an enemies dies from Blood Magic and have 78 Mana total. Nightmare Curse kills every enemy with one cast and usually puts them to sleep, if it doesn't I have the bevy of wands I just mentioned. Walking around casting the curse on each enemy I see and my mana never drops below 60 or so unless I just mix it up for the hell of it.

I feel kind of overpowered, the closest I've come to dying in the last few hours was trying to disarm a poison trap that was blocking my way. Well, that and a crazy invisible Diggle Commando freaked the shit out of me.

Think I'm at around 40k points so far with this guy

 

[KuroNeeko]

Daaaamn,

Though I'd take a break from Pinfield I and try an alternate level-up route. Pinfield II and Pinfield III met extremely early demises so though I was forced to pin all my hopes on Pinfield I.

I'll go into more depth on what level-up path I took once the competition closes for those of you who are still doing it but my run ended on Floor 2. I mentioned in a post earlier that inexperience would be one of my biggest hurdles and I was right. Pinfield I is the first character of mine to fully explore Floor 1 and then venture into Floor 2. Unfortunately, I was not ready for my first encounter with a zoo.

RIP Pinfield I.
Score - 16960

Overall, fun build with good synergy though I have some questions that I'll PM Wallach. Learned a lot too and I can tell that my thief build will need lots of work to survive Floor 2.

 

[Wallach]

Yeah, you're welcome to post what I sent you once we wrap things up. I was going to do something like that myself when the contest was over. No sense in writing it all again, I think I covered most of it.

 

[Houston3000]

Yeah, so I'm pretty upset right now


(click for larger version)


(click for larger version)

I had just cleared floor 5, was about to go to 6. Went down to 4 for some last minute cleanup and while running around (notice the map), completely overpowered, I step on an acid bolt trap - game lags momentarily I end up holding down D for a second too long and... Game Over man. Game Over. What sucks is, if you notice I have full mana and the healing spell on my bar, could of easily easily spam healed myself if my game didn't chop up like that

I realized I forgot it was my 3rd guy two, Houston II died almost right away but I accidentally shot past his grave screen in anger, took it off my High Scores Page.

Houston I - 20,248
Houston II - 320
Houston III - 86,816

Total: 107,384

 

[Volodja]

Yeah, besides contest builds I am holding off on playing DoD until the next patch since all of the builds I want to use are bugged in some way.

After losing my best 2 runs for the contest to bugs, I've hit the same decision.
I was already anticipating 1.0.4 so much that I had slowed down playing the current version, but that sealed the deal.
But I'm still looking forward to the next contest build.

 

[Wallach]

How's everyone coming? Is there anyone else that needs more time? I haven't gone back and finished my own run - in what free time I've had this week I've mostly played Dragon Nest - but it really doesn't matter since I can do that anytime.

 

[someguyinahat]

I hate to interrupt your contest, but I just got my first victory! Sure...it was dwarven moderation, but I'm feeling accomplished. I just wished I had more confidence in myself and didn't name him Poop Face in the expectation he was going to die.

I guess it's time to go Rogue now...and maybe I'll join the next contest when it starts.

Edit: for the record - axe, artful dodger, fleshsmithing, perception, burglary (didn't level it up), fungal arts, tinkering

 

[Wallach]

I hate to interrupt your contest, but I just got my first victory! Sure...it was dwarven moderation, but I'm feeling accomplished. I just wished I had more confidence in myself and didn't name him Poop Face in the expectation he was going to die.

I guess it's time to go Rogue now...and maybe I'll join the next contest when it starts.

Edit: for the record - axe, artful dodger, fleshsmithing, perception, burglary (didn't level it up), fungal arts, tinkering

Nice job! I guess not even his mother loved him, but he showed them all didn't he?

I think maybe we should extend the contest until Sunday. That way we always end on the tail end of the weekend (so people can do some last chance work if they are busy on the weekdays).

 

[Toma]

Nice job! I guess not even his mother loved him, but he showed them all didn't he?

I think maybe we should extend the contest until Sunday. That way we always end on the tail end of the weekend (so people can do some last chance work if they are busy on the weekdays).

Sorry, I couldnt make it until today. I'll try to die today though.

 

[Toma]

Still not dead, I'll retract from competing in the current task. I'd rather beat Dredmor than rush to die

 

[Wallach]

Well, I'll call an official end to things at 6 PM (PST) so if you do happen to finish your run by then you can add it. Otherwise we'll just wrap this one up and move along. I'm not done with my own first run either, but I've not had much time to play this week.

 

[Wallach]

Alright folks, with all entries submitted, here are the results in order they were received:

KittenMaster - 9692
Herla - 332
jayTOH - 3032
Volodja - 65968
LuchaShaq - 412
Cerepol - 4156
Berksy - 108
TP17 - 26712
KuroNeeko - 16960
Houston3000 - 86816

Note that only your highest individual score is counted, not the sum of all three runs as before. That makes the winner of this week's contest Houston3000!

If I've missed anyone, please PM me! Otherwise, Houston3000 will need to whip us up a new build to go and get killed with. If possible try to have it up by tomorrow at the latest!

Now that this one is officially concluded, I'm curious to hear what you guys thought of the build; what you liked, what you didn't, how you played it between your runs, and what you'd change if you had to put your own spin on it.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Once they fix some of the skills like dual wield, I say make a sword or unarmed build for contest.

 

[KuroNeeko]

Just going to throw this up here.

It was Wallach's reply to the PM that I sent him once I had finished my three runs. It goes over the basics of his build and why he chose what he chose.

In looking at the build now, I felt like I had a lot of mana problems early on, though to be fair Alchemy was very good for this. A lot of whether you're going to succeed or not depends on your starting wands and whether or not you get swarmed early on.

Also, it seems like the main reason for Fleshsmithing is the tier 3 heal. In that case, I'd like to suggest that the less mana intensive Psionics also get a mention. For 3 mana at tier one, you get a sleep spell. Tier two gives you knockback spell for 4 mana. Tier three gives you crystal healing for 12 (which unfortunately is more expensive then the FS heal and requires you to pick up crystals.

Otherwise, swapping out a skill for burglary might also help improve survivability, but I can see how it'd be tough to level up early on when you're trying to grab more offensive based skills.

Hey Wallach,

Just finished up my runs for the DoD competition and was wondering if you could answer a few questions.

As two out of my three characters died early, I was only really able to explore your build with one character. Not having much experience with any of the skills really, I decided to go down Fleshsmithing to go for the damage spell at level 2 and the heal spell at level 3.

As I progressed down the tree, I realized that I didn't have much offensive capability. Fleshbore was good for killing most mobs in a single cast, but fairly mana intensive. I still had to rely a lot on buy the 25 gold potion (grog?) from the vendors and distilling it into Dwarven Gut Rot. (BTW, really earned a whole new appreciation for Alchemy, if only for the distilling alone...)

After I got the heal, I went for the zombie, hoping that he'd be durable enough to take out multiple mobs and help me save mana while I built took an extra level in Alchemy for the tier two distilling and magic bonus. I then planned on finishing Blood Magic. Then I planned on grabbing the last rank of Flesh if my mana had stabilized or going into the Magic Training tree for more mana / regeneration.

In retrospect, I think going Necro first would have been a better choice which brings me to the question - what is the Fleshsmithing in there for? How are you using the Meatshield? Seems like the mana investment coupled with the risk of having it beaten off seems like too much of a gamble. Did you ever bother raising your Wand Mastery?

Anyway, thanks for the build. Learned a lot about the game in general.

Well, this build is not actually the build I first beat the game with. Where Wand Mastery and Alchemy are, there was Vampirism and Staves. Also, when I did that run I had never played with Necronomiconomics or Fleshsmithing before.

I got lucky on that first run and was able to hit level 2 - I think that is really the test for any of these very wizard-heavy builds. If you can get to level 2, you can probably continue on somewhat safely. But getting to level 2 sucks, which is why I initially had Vampirism and Staves, because I figured at the least I might be able to bash my way to level 2.

Like you, on that run I also went down Fleshsmithing before touching Necronomiconomics. The big reason for me doing so was to get to the heal; I figured that with a solid way to heal myself at range (being a vampire) I would be able to easily exploit the Necronomiconomics spells to my advantage. However, like you I also realized when I got there that I'd really hurt my offensive power and almost did not make it off floor 4 due to struggling with the mana balancing act when taking on the monster zoo there. I was tough to kill while I had mana, but I had to spend that mana quite fast to get my own killing done outside of melee. Up to then I'd be able to get through most of floors 2 and 3 by using single casts of Fleshbore on tougher monsters, and otherwise just bashing the rest.

However, that first point into Necronomiconomics revealed my mistake. I had no idea that Nightmare Curse did not hurt your life pool, but instead hurt your magic pool. By the time I had taken it (somewhere on floor 4) the mana cost was very low compared to Fleshbore and the debuff was really easy to handle. Once I had taken that I decided to finish off Fleshsmithing because I was desperately needing an AoE to deal with groups and especially the upcoming monster zoos and I wasn't going to get enough levels to get all the way to the rank 6 Necronomiconomics spell before I hit that wall. Again that proved to be a waste because the zombie spell is quite useless and while the rank 6 AoE is not bad at all for Fleshsmithing, it pales in comparison to Necronomiconomics' rank 6 AoE.

Now, when it comes to why I redesigned the build like this, it's for a few reasons:

Wand Mastery: This went in for pretty much two reasons - to have a decent shot at getting through that first level with a decent wand draw, and to get the wand Entropy-lowering cooldown. The latter is very powerful for later game utility because you can use the Zodiac wand to wipe off your entire debuff stack from Necronomiconomics. So if you can just get one or two Zodiac wands you can keep them for the whole run with just that skill and it really allows you to fire off more spells in short periods safely.

Alchemy: The main reason I wanted this is because I wanted to ditch Vampirism. Once you get rolling in this build you really have no reason to be in melee range ever again, and you don't really have a reliable pet to smack for vampirism healing until late Fleshsmithing. This allows you to make orbs up through Molten Orb (which is good to dual wield instead of bothering with a staff), gives you all kinds of potions and drinks so if you can survive the skill investment it really becomes far more powerful of a survival skill than Vampirism.

As for what Fleshsmithing really does here, I think it does two really nice things. One, it gives you a decent buff to further help you survive that horrible first level or two. Two, it gives you a no-cooldown heal spell, which is never really a bad thing in a permadeath game. Especially when you're using a school of magic that has the potential to hurt you quite badly. This dips in usefulness in the middle but picks right back up again when you get to rank 6 Necronomiconomics, as Tenebrous Rift has a chance of dealing health damage to you as a debuff and if you cast it too close to yourself (which is not hard to do if you don't have LoS buffs because the AoE radius is massive).

Ultimately, when the build is really firing right it's based on some very simple things: either fueling your Necronomiconomics offensive spells so that they become unbelievably deadly with every cast (to minimize how many times you have to cast them), or to increase your survivability as much as possible in ways that are still useful when you are not in immediate danger.

To specifically answer your other questions: I used Meatshield only in the very early game, to try my best to not die before getting to level 2/3. In my current game, I do not actually increase Fleshsmithing for quite some time - it is lower priority to me than Alchemy, Blood Mage and Necronomiconomics, and I don't think I'll go beyond Knit Flesh. As for Wand Lore, I do actually increase this but not until later. The skill that allows you to re-roll wands is good for turning something like an Arcane or Rock wand into a Coral or Zodiac wand, which are just incredibly useful wands for this build.

 

[Houston3000]

Alright folks, with all entries submitted, here are the results in order they were received:

Note that only your highest individual score is counted, not the sum of all three runs as before. That makes the winner of this week's contest Houston3000!

If I've missed anyone, please PM me! Otherwise, Houston3000 will need to whip us up a new build to go and get killed with. If possible try to have it up by tomorrow at the latest!

Oh wow, awesome! I didn't realize they weren't being added together. At some point around the 2nd floor I hit a point where I was absolutely destroying, I'm sure I would of cleared it if it wasn't for that stupid mistake I made stepping on a trap and not healing through the poison.

Now that this one is officially concluded, I'm curious to hear what you guys thought of the build; what you liked, what you didn't, how you played it between your runs, and what you'd change if you had to put your own spin on it.

Here's how I leveled up -

Level 1: Fleshsmithing (Fleshbore)
Level 2: Necronomiconomics (Nightmare Curse)
Level 3: Wand Lore (Baton Polisher)
Level 4: Fleshsmithing (Knit Tissue)
Level 5-6: Blood Mage (Spirit Stealer & Soul Collector)
Level 7-8: Magic Training (Wizarding Associate & Master of Magic)
Level 9-10: Ley Walking (Conduit & Channeller)

If I kept leveling I would of dumped points into Alchemy purely for the Sagacity increase - which in turn would of increased my Magic Power. Magic Power is basically the story, I knew from my first run that mana would be my problem so I focused on getting my power so high that the cost of my spells would be completely cancelled out by the regen caused by my Blood Magic skills. I regenerated 7 mana when an enemy died, my Curse cost 3 mana and it killed all but the toughest enemies in one cast in about 3 turns (and put them to sleep) plus I had something like 115 Mana. I would open a door to a room full of enemies, cast cast cast cast, all dead... usually didn't even move from the doorway.

As for the Wand Lore - that came in very very handy early on for dealing damage before I had enough Magic Power and Blood Mage skills to keep my mana pool infinite. At the end though it still served one amazingly important purpose - keeping my Zodiacal Wand alive. For those that don't know, Zodiacal Wands cure you of all negative status ailments. In the beginning of the game it allowed me to cast Hex and then just remove the curse from myself the next turn instead of eating the damage. At the end it allowed me to spam Nightmare Curse then cure the curse that lowered my Mana Points. Invaluable and I literally only had one the entire game, the one I spawned with! Honestly, Nightmare Curse is overpowered though.

I'll post a build, give me a bit.

 

[Houston3000]

New Contest Build

- Axes
- Burglary
- Artful Dodger
- Fungal Arts
- Assassination
- Perception
- Psionics

I played a build very similar to this on Going Rogue. It's melee so it's tough but there are a LOT of tools for controlling a room and even escaping from bad situations. You don't have any crafting skills but Fungal Arts should provide you with everything you'd need. You'll have the help of your psionic abilities as well, don't forget.

 

[KuroNeeko]

New Contest Build

- Axes
- Burglary
- Artful Dodger
- Fungal Arts
- Assassination
- Perception
- Psionics

I played a build very similar to this on Going Rogue. It's melee so it's tough but there are a LOT of tools for controlling a room and even escaping from bad situations. You don't have any crafting skills but Fungal Arts should provide you with everything you'd need. You'll have the help of your psionic abilities as well, don't forget.

Sweet. Thanks!

I already have an idea of how to play as I have a similar build but Axes is going to be a first for me.

 

[Volodja]

Now that this one is officially concluded, I'm curious to hear what you guys thought of the build; what you liked, what you didn't, how you played it between your runs, and what you'd change if you had to put your own spin on it.

The build was interesting.
My memory of the runs is not perfect because I played the last one a week ago.
Wand Mastery was useful both in the beginning if the starting wands were decent and later when I started having to use the later Necro spells thanks to Zodiac Wand and the Coral one, never put more than the starting point in it. I also read that the tree is bugged and that the burn rate didn't go down accordingly so I didn't want to try my luck.
I didn't use Alchemy in any of my games but one where I crafted lots of mana potions but even then it wasn't much useful and only clogged my inventory with stuff.
Blood mage, lay walker and mage training were overall useful but the only one I leveled relatively early was Mage Training.
My first run I concentrated on leveling Fleshsmithing but it turned out to be a bad idea, while it helped against Zombies with the second spell (that don't seem to be affected that much by the Nightmare Curse), the only other decent spell was the cure, and even then it wasn't indispensable that early.
The other runs I went with Necro first and the result was much better as far as speed went, pretty soon my game was basically spamming Nightmare Curse in a room and wait for the debuff to go away while I explored the cleared room.
Never managed to reach the 6th spell, bugs got in my way every try.
I would have probably left Alchemy and maybe Fleshsmithing out, hoping to find a Zodiac or a Coral Wand before I hit the first Monster Zoo.
I don't really know what I would have put in their place, maybe the Maths tree and Staves to help a little in the beginning.

New Contest Build

- Axes
- Burglary
- Artful Dodger
- Fungal Arts
- Assassination
- Perception
- Psionics

I played a build very similar to this on Going Rogue. It's melee so it's tough but there are a LOT of tools for controlling a room and even escaping from bad situations. You don't have any crafting skills but Fungal Arts should provide you with everything you'd need. You'll have the help of your psionic abilities as well, don't forget.

Mh, I don't really like to rely on dodge chance for defense, but I guess I'll have to adapt.
The presence of Fungal Arts means this will take me quite a while, unless I lose all the runs on the first rooms.

 

[Houston3000]

I don't want to throw around too many tips on the best way to play this build but in the spirit of hoping everyone doesn't die super quick with a melee build please remember you're going to have a lot of forms of Crowd Control and Escape. Without going into too much detail - Narcosomatic Induction (Sleep), Lock-Up (Root), Black-Jack (Stun), Knightly Leap (Escape), Inky Hoglantern (Escape), Sneaky-Shiv (Stun), Slime-Herder (Pet), etc... and that's only going so far as level 2! On Spawn you'll already have access to 3 of these, by level 2 you could have two very reliable forms of CC if you so choose.

Play it safe and don't be afraid to eat mushrooms, they'll be plentiful with Fungal Arts.

 

[KittenMaster]

This build looks to be up my alley. I'm on my 2nd attempt (first attempt failed 'cause of dumb stuff).

 

[KuroNeeko]

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

Already on my third run as the first two died to massive Diggle / Battie Welcoming Committees. On the first run I *almost* made it but died on the last monster due to a (un)lucky counter.

Second run through gave me the Bruce Lee of Batties who resisted sleep twice and then proceeded to dodge my attack twice in a row. Oh well.

Third run is going a bit more smoothly. Lots of cool tricks you can do with Sleep (if they don't resist it) though the Psychokinetic Shove is not turning out to be as useful as I'd hoped.

 

[Althane]

So I've been trying a couple of different setups back and forth. Currently my most successful is the Viking Vampire Dual-Weilding Swordmaster with side focuses in Armor, Smithing, and is also very perceptive.

I've torn through a monster zoo on the second floor without any issue. About the only hard part was the first floor before I was able to make a decent hitting weapon. Everything dies in 3 to 2 hits (well, that which doesn't die in 1), and I've got a really good counter rating.

So am I playing easymode or what?


Edit: Oh, my fist game was my shortest. I opened the first door and got swarmed by Diggles. I was playing an Unarmed character, and didn't even manage to kill one.

Yup. I died with a score of 0.

 

[Wallach]

So I've been trying a couple of different setups back and forth. Currently my most successful is the Viking Vampire Dual-Weilding Swordmaster with side focuses in Armor, Smithing, and is also very perceptive.

I've torn through a monster zoo on the second floor without any issue. About the only hard part was the first floor before I was able to make a decent hitting weapon. Everything dies in 3 to 2 hits (well, that which doesn't die in 1), and I've got a really good counter rating.

So am I playing easymode or what?

I dunno, what difficulty did you pick at the start?

Things will get harder for you as you go on if you stick with melee, though. Especially in this build.

 

[KittenMaster]

I could have continued, but I am really tired of playing and didn't expect to have made it so far and the Quests on Floor 2 were taking too long, so I died on purpose upon reaching floor 3. This is the score I'm sticking with.

This build was fun, though.

 

[Althane]

I dunno, what difficulty did you pick at the start?

Things will get harder for you as you go on if you stick with melee, though. Especially in this build.

Normal. I figured that would happen, so I'm stocking up on potions to add effects to my weapons, and oh-so-many-wands.

What's a typical "Mage" build like? I'm not familiar with all the skill yet.

 

[Vastag]

I'm playing my first "pure mage" build and Promethean Magic is a blast. Clearing zoos with runes and fireballs is amazingly satisfaying. My only problem is the dragon pet, they need to improve the pets AI in future patches.

 

[KittenMaster]

I decided to start a no-permadeath game where my build is made up by requiring all of the skills to be adjacent to at least two other skills (making a graphical chain).

I ended up with Staves, Mastery of Arms, Promethian Magic, Archaeology, Golemancy, Mage Training, Crossbows. Promethian Magic is freaking good even before you get Obvious Fireball, and Crossbows actually aren't bad as long as you don't try to use it as your main weapon.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

This game just gets boring after awhile. After you've seen the same room about 5 times in a level, you just want to move on.

I want a funny, 2d Dungeon crawl stone soup

 

[Wallach]

Ah man. What the fuck. I just got killed by Lord Dredmor on GR + P because the game did one of those weird pauses when he came on screen, and apparently the "left click/right click" swap bug took place and my character started running towards him. He did three Thor bolts in a row and killed me before I realized what the hell was going on. What a fucking waste of time.

I think I'll put this one back on the shelf until the next patch.

 

[Berksy]

Incoming patch.

Okay, final patch release date for 1.0.4 can now be confirmed as Tuesday morning – the morning of September 6th, 2011. We’re putting one last beta out even as I speak, and the actual release candidate will be sent to Valve over the weekend. Why are we doing this? Well, frankly, because it’s a very bad idea to ever release a patch on a Friday. That’s just asking for something to go wrong and for everybody to be frustrated over the long weekend. So go enjoy your last few moments with Dredmor 1.0.3, and throw some Lutefisk on the grill. Next week, there’s a whole new Dredmor waiting for you. — N.

Also, new achievements are live on Steam.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Fun, fun game (picked it up last week; finally getting some time to really get into it). On floor 4 in game 5 with an Ax build with Viking for buffing and some perception.

So I've been trying a couple of different setups back and forth. Currently my most successful is the Viking Vampire Dual-Weilding Swordmaster with side focuses in Armor, Smithing, and is also very perceptive.

I've torn through a monster zoo on the second floor without any issue. About the only hard part was the first floor before I was able to make a decent hitting weapon. Everything dies in 3 to 2 hits (well, that which doesn't die in 1), and I've got a really good counter rating.

So am I playing easymode or what?


Edit: Oh, my fist game was my shortest. I opened the first door and got swarmed by Diggles. I was playing an Unarmed character, and didn't even manage to kill one.

Yup. I died with a score of 0.

Third game this happened to me. Walk in, 3 Diggles. Who liked to dodge. Alot. :lol

 

[Sye d'Burns]

Okay, final patch release date for 1.0.4 can now be confirmed as Tuesday morning – the morning of September 6th, 2011. We’re putting one last beta out even as I speak, and the actual release candidate will be sent to Valve over the weekend. Why are we doing this? Well, frankly, because it’s a very bad idea to ever release a patch on a Friday. That’s just asking for something to go wrong and for everybody to be frustrated over the long weekend. So go enjoy your last few moments with Dredmor 1.0.3, and throw some Lutefisk on the grill. Next week, there’s a whole new Dredmor waiting for you. — N.

I was beginning to wonder if we'd ever see that patch on Steam.

 

[Wallach]

Patch day! Woo, finally. Can't wait for Haywire to actually work now.

Edit - YESSSS my monster taunt made it into the game!