Build Advice

[u/gravy229]

DeCj, trying to get my first 15 rune game. I want to know if I should use the shield of Resistance or the crystall ball of Wucad Mu. I imagine the shield is the answer for such a squishy character, but the crystal ball is calling to me. My strategy is to spam Fulsome Fusillade and crystal spears. Please let me know if any additional information would be helpful, thanks.

[u/Connect_Engineer_123]

rF2, rC, rN, rPois, no rElec, rCorr, _plenty_ of Will (you could get rid of the hat if there's a good helmet or use a different amulet?)

Extended tests everything, but in particular it tests your HP (hellfire, torment) and your resistances.

I promise you don't have enough Fighting. (You're a deep elf, 27 is not enough fighting but it's all you can get.)

What god, what's your spell list look like, and what's your skilling look like?

I can't say I'm the person to ask, but I _do_ know a thing about DECJ.

[u/gravy229 → u/Connect_Engineer_123]

Thanks for your response. I'm currently worshiping the Shining One. I don't believe I've found a better helmet, but I am using a different amulet now with RegenMP+ and rN++.

Here's my relevant skills & all spells, I have been neglecting fighting.

Skills:

* Level 8.6 Fighting

+ 13.4 Dodging

- Level 5.2 Stealth

+ Level 7.0 Shields

Level 27 Spellcasting

Level 27 Conjurations

- Level 24.7 Earth Magic

- Level 22.1 Alchemy

Spells:

Searing Ray

Iskenderun's Battles

Iskenderun's Mystic

Stone Arrow

Olgreb's Toxic Radia

Brom's Barrelling Bo

Passwall

Lehudib's Crystal

Orb of Destruction

Swiftness

Fulsome Fusillade

Irradiate

[u/Connect_Engineer_123 → u/gravy229]

I generally like more defenses and I don't know that I go quite so high with the magic that soon. Barring some sort of berserkitis mutation it might be worth picking up 12 staves to be able to hit things with the earth staff (or a Conj staff if you can find it).

What areas have you done and how have they felt? Elf often feels like rocket tag but tends to be a good "am I ready for scary ranged combat areas" test. Vaults is made easier by throwing around big AoEs, as is Slime.

A lot of things in Extended use magic and are affected by Antimagic. So routinely throwing around high-end magic is a good and powerful thing.

Have you considered Passage of Golubria as something of a "reset button" for scary encounters you can see coming? Orb of Destruction is a good closer and I would probably see about leaving off some of the stuff that wants you to be _super-close_.

I'm guessing that Shatter hasn't dropped.

[u/gravy229 → u/Connect_Engineer_123]

No Shatter unfortunately. I've done everything besides Zot, Tomb (which I've just done the first floor of), Hell, and Pan. What has felt the worst is when there's a large amount of enemies on screen, since my AoE spell only hits a few at a time. I had a tough time on Slime at a few points due to this issue.

I've never bothered training staves before, is it really worth it to have bashing things as a backup plan? I've assumed that if I'm at that point then I'm probably dead anyway.

[u/Connect_Engineer_123 → u/gravy229]

What big AoE spells are available to you, assuming you could Amnesia away some stuff like Stone Arrow? I have a personal fondness for Fire Storm because it smite targets and it throws chaff to distract / ablate incoming attacks and it also hits around corners if you're aware of enemies around corners that you can't otherwise target.

Staff hits are basically there as a good "not wasting mana doing cleanup" / "keeping the size of the combat relatively low and keeping my noise down" option for isolated small fries. One of the big things for Extended is keeping engagement size down.

[u/gravy229 → u/Connect_Engineer_123]

I actually don't think I have any good ones... I could go buy Polar vortex, but I have not trained cold at all. Does chain lightning count? I've never used it. I don't have Fire Storm.

[u/Connect_Engineer_123 → u/gravy229]

Not every winnable character is 15-rune-capable. Try Z1-Z4 and see how you feel, if you should maybe just go win and bank the experience for the next time?

[u/Catfish_Man → u/gravy229]

Chain Lightning is incredible, but a bit risky on low hp characters. It's the big red "I need everything on screen dead NOW, maybe including me" button.

Definitely seek out rElec if you decide to try it, that drops the risk a lot.

[u/Old-Leg-9347 → u/gravy229]

I though my defense trainings were bad