Difference between revisions of "User:Vyn/Alchemist"

Revision as of 21:29, 3 September 2021

The following notes based on the character below:

Anin: Thalore Alchemist (normal/adventure)

This was the first character I played after a 7 year hiatus from ToME, so it is very much experimental and not as optimized as it could be. Single death was due to walking into the Damp Cave and losing track of stealthed enemies. As usual, it was an entirely preventable event with better play.

General Impression

• Throw Bomb has very high AoE damage, particularly in confined spaces
• With some means of scouting, can go through most of game tossing bombs around corners and never letting any enemy even get in sight
• Fire Storm and Body of Fire yield very high sustained damage, but requires proximity
• Golem is a very average tank, best used for momentary distractions and inflicting on-hit debuffs, particularly on-hit global slow.
  • Make sure to bind a hotkey for controlling golem (party: give order to character 2), as it has to be repositioned frequently for best effect
  • Higher levels of Supercharge Golem can reduce the cooldown enough that the Thalor racial Nature's Pride summons might tie you over in tougher battles. Probably won't work in insane+ difficulty however.
  • Healing totems can affect golems and help keep them healthy. Works on escorts too.
  • Golems can be controlled to help open doors and activate objects. If a trap would normally move the player into a different zone (e.g. tentacle swallowing player, falling down into grave), then that effect will fizzle on the golem. If you actually want to get moved into a different zone however, you can still activate the trap yourself, then use Golem Portal to immediately switch places with your golem (presumably parked some distance away).
• There are very strong cold damage unique items that can combo well with Fire Storm and Body of Fire for a PBAoE style of attack. They can be tricky to use with a golem due to friendly damage however.
  • Frozen Shroud: a damage burst plus an incredibly strong lingering AoE
  • Frost Lord's Chain: has ice block penetration, and grants Shivgoroth Form, which gives you Ice Storm
• High movement speed or infusions/runes/talents for repositioning can help one utilize the PBAoE damage more effectively.
  • Unfortunately, item talens like the ones mentioned above can damage the golem. The golem can be commanded to move into safer positions, and it may be necessary to disable the golem's Knockback and Pound talents to prevent it from moving around too much.
• Flash Freeze is very helpful for a PBAoE play style, making it easier to position yourself relative to your golem and the enemy.
• Unlocking more generic categories can give more buttons to push when Throw Bomb is on cooldown. While this is not necessarily more effective than just using Channel Staff, it is definitely more fun.
• Smoke Bomb is incredible for blocking line of sight
  • Best used with some scouting talents, like Arcane Eye or a wand of clairvoyance.
  • Stair traps can be easily dealt with by dropping smoke at your feet, and throwing ranged attacks at enemies
  • Although most enemies have 10 range infravision, they seem unable to target you accurately through the smoke
  • That smoke bomb will interact with burning enemies is its greatest weakness. Thankfully this interaction is only checked on cast, so you can still burn enemies after the smoke is up.
• Primary threat to the alchemist are enemies that can quickly dispose of the golem and still hurt the alchemist afterwards, either due to quick cooldowns or very high damage basic attacks. Burning Hex can deal with the former, but the latter will often require bomb kiting.
• Class seems to be well balanced for normal/nightmare. Probably viable on insane too, but expect it to be very tedious.

Generic Unlocks

• Hexes: can be obtained locked after helping Grand Corruptor attack Zigur
  • Pacification Hex: can useful to cast on enemies you are not actively attacking, but this situation is rare
  • Burning Hex: one of the best debuffs against strong foes, but does require one to at least survive the first round of attacks (disposable golem is helpful here)
  • Empathic Hex: utterly useless due to asymmetry in player vs enemy damage/health ratios
  • Domination Hex: can make big rooms of enemies fight themselves, more useful on higher difficulties
• Divination: can be obtained locked from escorts
  • Arcane Eye: only need effective talent 5 to see stealth/invisible creatures, so 4 raw points with Adept is enough
  • Keen Senses: a decent sustained buff, works well enough with 1 point and Adept.
  • Vision: scouts terrain for better bomb placement, did not use this much due to finding Burning Star
  • Premonition: more damage mitigation is always nice

Prodigies

• Adept: A great prodigy for any character being played for the first time. Allows one to experiment with more talents to see how they perform with the character. The +1.5 talent points even affects item talents, and is further boosted by mastery, so it can have a very substantial impact.
• Worldly Knowledge: Gives more buttons to push in between bomb cooldowns, and guarantees access to Divination.

Play Style

1. Use Track or a wand of clairvoyance to maintain contact with enemies
2. Use Throw Bomb around corners to take care of most enemies
3. For tougher enemies that can also chase you down quickly, contact can often still be broken with Smoke Bomb, allowing for more time to continue your attacks. Make sure to keep scouting talents running though. Arcane Eye on the target is optimal.
4. If the enemy still breaks through, then it may be time to send in the golem to tank a few turns and waste their cooldowns.
   • Burning Hex cast early will help ensure enemy talents will take a long time to recycle
   • If the battle is expected to be long, it will be best to have the golem approach from a flank, but this can take some micromanagement
5. Use Caustic Mire to slow and damage the enemies. The slow is very strong and cannot be resisted.
6. Once the enemies are in a good position, use Flash Freeze to pin them in place
7. Activate movement abilities and get yourself into a good position to use PBAoE attacks
8. Turn on all the PBAoE attacks. For the character played here, just the sustains and DoT effects will deal ~1k damage per turn before crits, for 10-15 turns.