Tattersail, the dwellerless elementalist

[Kalam]

Alright, I'll get some reports going on my final twinked character here, I realised that this twinking thing makes the game a little too easy so all the new chars I started after this one use self-found gear only.
I started this one with a friend who played a juggernaut, but he lost interest in the game after normal. So now I'm going to continue on my own. The lass is heavily twinked, so I turned this one into a challenge in another way: she's not going to have a Core Dweller at all, and she will do the entire game on xmax (except for the giza part that doesn't work on xmax).

She's level 50 at the moment and her build is looking like this
With a +3 to skills from Hallowed Turanite Crown of Immortality + legendary crystal.

Statwise:



The main fighting strategy varies from group to group, that's why I really love playing this one. When I see mainly archers or other ranged ones it's VO+squall. When I see big fighter mobs it's VO+eruption. And finally, when it's small annoying fast little boogers (the ones I always hate most, hard-to-click-on ) it's a radom combination, but thunderball is unmissable. That one is just so good when one or two avoid the other AoE spells and come running towards me.

I just hit my first real scare: the three Manticores in act 2. After one death I carefully had to pick em off one by one, drag one away from the other two and kyte them one by one, leaving eruptions and squalls in my wake. Took me quite some time, but I managed.

Now, I'll be heading into real difficulties soon enough. And my DA is far from high enough to be able to take a punch or two. I've got a good amount of health through a socrates & a hallowed both of immortality, but my guess is I'll have to seriously up my Dex or, preferably just DA through gear.
So any suggestions for this are more than welcome! For that matter, any other suggestions are just as welcome.

Thanks in advance, and I'll keep the ones of you who are interested posted on my progress now and then.

[Darklightr]

Like I said in your other topic, TQItemBase is a great tool for information about every item (from Mi's up) in the game. It's a compiled HTML document (a.k.a program ), download it here. Great little tool, that also includes come calcs (TitanCalc, MasteryCalc and Occultulator). So it's really everything any TQ player wants in one handy program. Enjoy!

[D3fault]

As someone who uses it, I confirm what Darklightr says.

Oh and good luck Kalam. Your toon looks pretty tricked out. I started twinking my second toon and also realized how easy it made the game. I stopped after I outgrew the few pieces I sent to that character.

[defboy99]

Yep, ironically, I just got TQItemBase today. Man, what a handy tool! Wish I'd had it all these 4+ years I've been playing.

Incidentally, I have a lvl 43 Elementalist in early Epic who was my 3rd toon way back in the day. That's back when I was twinking, and she's very twinked with some very cool Legendary gear. Haven't played her since '07 but I'll go back and revisit her at some point (and not twink her anymore!). Curious to see how she'd do in Legendary since I'm not really big on casters (she made it through Normal without Squall or Eruption, if you can believe that--I didn't know much about the game back then, as you can guess...). Good luck with your toon, Kalam. Keep us posted.

[LMunhoz]

Plouton's Cornucopia is the first one I can think of to replace that Iris'. Calypso's Cover (less DA +1 skill). Coronal of the Abyss would be sweet but your Hallowed Crown is also nice. Leggings of the Defiled obviously hehe I think Battlemage Greaves can have DA bonus. Plouton's Bracelet has 200 DA bonus IIRC but you'd have to replace Archmage's Clasp and that's bad, mmmkay?

[Irma2]

I just hit my first real scare: the three Manticores in act 2. After one death I carefully had to pick em off one by one, drag one away from the other two and kyte them one by one, leaving eruptions and squalls in my wake. Took me quite some time, but I managed.

You should try SB/SS against Manticore(s). It drops them in about two casts.

Your biggest problem is going to be the Hydra. Ranged spells don't work well because it'll use its breaths. So you have to be up close. Without Cory to take the heat for you, that's going to be... interesting.

DA is a tough one. There are some uniques that give it but those can gimp you in other ways. Coronal of the Abyss gives a lot of DA but then you lose the +skills and Vit resistance of your Hallowed.

The one area where I think you can get significant boosts is jewelry and greaves. In Legendary, Socrates' of Supremacy rings and amulets can roll with ~90DA. If you get three of those and socket with Monkey King's Trickery (default completion bonus of 75 DA), you will have around 495 DA while getting the debuffing of MKT and the damage boost from Socrates'. You can also get greaves ...of Supremacy and socket with Legendary Hermes (100 DA completion) for another 190, giving 685 total. With your current Dex, that will put you at around 920 DA total.

I assume that's Archmage's Mantle you're wearing. If so, I'd ditch it for Plouton's Cornucopia or Tunic of the Magi. If it's Iris' Scintillating Robes, you may be getting enough bonuses from it anyway. With Plouton's added to the gear above, you'd be at around 1160 DA. That's not enough to avoid most hits, but it'll certainly take the sting out of many melee attacks.

Other jewelry options are the Ixion Stone (+234 DA) and Bronze Heart of Talus (+19% DA).

[Kalam]

My gear at the moment is:
Quan Ti's Sorrow
Iris Scintillating Robes
Hallowed Turanite Crown of Immortality + legendary crystal of erebus (skills bonus)
Archamge's Clasp
Padded Ramie Wraps of the Pegasus + incarnation of hermes' sandals (pierce resist bonus)
Polaris
Celestial Band
Plato's Turanite Loop of Immortality + legendary demon's blood (stun resist bonus)
Effigy of Skyfire


As soon as I hit 55, artifact will be replaced by Ikon of Zeus. That'll give me 100% stun resist so my Plato's will get to lose the demon's blood and gain monkey king.

You guys think I should give up pierce resistance on my hermes' sandals and change it to DA?
Same quesion goes for the monkey king at 55. My pierce resist would drop, but since I have squall, DA is probably better?

I could change my chestpiece to vestment of the overlord / calypso's cover, but I'd lose a lot of damage + elemental resustance. Thinking Iris' might be my best option after all. + they look damn hot.
Would win a lot of skills tho, have no idea what would be best.
I'm no fan of the notion of replacing the celestial band (the resist+the damage is really sweet). The polaris could be replaced, if I find something reasonable...

Thanks for the input everyone, keep it coming

[Kalam]

oh yeah - SB/SS - does that work with just 2 points invested in it?
Because I don't wanna invest heavily in that, for a few fights only.

[Irma2]

No, SB/SS must be maxed - both skills. Although it's handy in more than a few fights. Manti, Talos, Typhon, Undead Dragon Liche, Bandari, the Gray Sisters, Hydra, Empusae, Dragonian mages, skellie mages are all susceptible to it. It'll nuke basically any monster mage in any difficulty.

One option is to find an Evoker's staff and amulet and switch to them before those boss fights. That gives +4 to Storm so it'll turn mid-level SB/SS into maxed SB/SS.

[Kalam]

mhmm, well, I'll reach my desired build at level 57.
Then I have a choice of investing in either lightning bolt tree, ring of flame tree or SB/SS.
The lightning bolt will probably never be used/needed, but the ring of flame might come in handy as soon as the monsters start to reach me, I don't really know. What are your experiences with that as a caster?