Oozemancer 1.0.4

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Guide

Introduction

I put off playing an Oozemancer until after the most recent patch since people said they were ridiculously overpowered. I recently got my first win as a Thalore Oozemancer and the class still feels very powerful. Although Oozemancers are inherently Antimagic, they still play fairly similar to mages with powerful ranged attacks controlled teleports. Oozemancers are fairly more defensive than most mages (despite their -3 hp per level) since their summoned Oozes help tank damage and their Antimagic tree helps them defend against most types of damage.

Race

Higher * Although Gift of the Highborn scales with willpower, it's still usually worse than a regeneration infusion. Overseer of Nations is decent, the blindness immunity doesn't help since you can already get 100% from class talents. Born into Magic is completely worthless on an Antimagic character and Highborn's Bloom is equally terrible since equilibrium isn't a major issue on an Oozemancer.

Cornac ** You only need to unlock two categories unless you want Harmony or Dreaming (escort category) and racials are usually much more useful than a category point. (In 1.0.4, Harmony now comes free after the Sandworm Lair.)

Shalore * You're Antimagic so you can't use your racials.

Thalore ***** Even though you can get 100% disease immunity without Guardian of the Wood, 10% all damage reduction is still incredible. Both the activated abilities are great too since they're both instant casts. The experience penalty is harsh (I was only level 48 by the final battle and I cleared every zone except the near-infinite spawns in the Sludgenest).

Halfling **** If you really like the Eye of the Tiger or Lucky Day prodigies Halfling Oozemancers can be very powerful and Militant Mind and Indomitable are really strong in any build.

Dwarf *** Power is Money is pretty good, but the other racials aren't that good since you shouldn't be getting hit in melee a lot as an Oozemancer.

Yeek *** Your hp per level will be a pathetic at 4, but all your racials are pretty good. However, Quickened isn't as good on an Oozemancer as it is on many other classes since you're fairly limited by cooldowns even with Eye of the Tiger (only 5 useful offense spells).

Stats

Wil > cun > con unless you're a Yeek, in which case wil > cun > con until you have 30 cun with items, then get con over cun.

Class Talents

Slime

Slime Spit ***** Your primary damage talent. Its 800% missile speed can cause it to miss against moving foes but this isn't a major problem. Its bounce allows it to clear groups of enemies easily, but it can still easily miss a bounce with its 800% missile speed. Get it to 5/5 early since you'll be using it almost every fight.

Poisonous Spores **** This skill does crazy damage if it runs its full duration, but it can be resisted by many enemies. Great for clearing grouped up enemies. Get at least 3/5 to increase the range and maybe 5/5 if you really like it.

Acidic Skin *** It's not particularly powerful but it only costs 3 equilibrium which isn't an issue. Unfortunately, you won't take advantage of it often since you are seldom in melee range. Suggested 1/5 to proc Natural Acid on melee foes.

Slime Roots ** The cooldown reset isn't particularly good since most of your important abilities have low cooldowns. It could be useful if you don't have Eye of the Tiger but for mobility it's much worse than Oozewalk. Put points in it if you have nothing better to invest in since it can reset Mana Clash and Silence but it's not particularly useful more most of the game.

Mucus

Mucus ***** This keeps your equilibrium low so you never have to meditate. It also allows you to Oozewalk to the Mucus created by Acid Splash. Suggested 1/5 early and 5/5 later when you can spare the points.

Acid Splash ***** Until level 20 this is your only reliable way of applying Natural Acid. Its damage is decent but not particularly good, especially later on when you have much more bonus nature damage than acid damage. However, it creates Mucus which is useful for Living Mucus and Oozewalk. Suggested 1/5 early and 4/5 later to increase the radius.

Living Mucus ***** The Mucus Oozes it creates are weak initially, but en masse they can be extremely powerful with Unstoppable Nature late game. Acid Splash a group of enemies to take full advantage of this ability. Suggested 1/5 early and 5/5 when you can spare the points.

Oozewalk ***** Use Mucus and Acid Splash the location you want to go, then use Oozewalk to teleport there. It also removes physical and mental debuffs but you should still keep a physical Wild Infusion to get rid of freezes and stuns. You only need 1/5 points in this talent.

Ooze

Mitosis ***** Bloated Oozes essentially reduce your damage taken by 50% for as long as they're alive. This talent makes Oozemancers able to survive much more easily than their -3 hp per level suggests. Suggested 5/5 to be able to have 3 Bloated Oozes at once.

Reabsorb **** This ability is great since the 40% reduction stacks with thick skin and Guardian of the Wood (if you're a Thalore) to get you to 65% all resist. The manaburn is OK but you're really using it for the resist bonus. Suggested at least 1/5, more if you use it often.

Call of the Ooze **** This ability allows you to instantly max out on Bloated Oozes. This is best against enemies who don't use a lot of AoE but still great in any situation. Suggested 1/5 and 5/5 after maxing Mitosis.

Indiscernible Anatomy ***** 100% disease, poison, cut, and blind resist is absolutely amazing and shrugging off 75% of criticals makes the one of the best passives in the game. 5/5 this as soon as you can.

Moss

Moss's damage is underwhelming and enemies usually don't get close enough for it to be useful so I didn't invest any points in this tree. However, Grasping Moss, Slippery Moss, and Hallucinogenic Moss all seem like they could be useful so feel free to experiment with any leftover points (I had a lot of these late game). Be careful if using Eye of the Tiger if you go for Slippery or Hallucinogenic Moss, since they will put 3 or 4 talents on cooldown respectively.

Oozing Blades

Your first category point should be used to unlock this tree.

Oozebeam ***** Your second best damage talent. Slightly weaker than Slime Spit but it always hits and has a lower cooldown. 5/5 this ASAP.

Natural Acid ***** By the end of the game this was reducing enemy nature resist by 92%. This means if they start with 0% resistance they take 92% bonus nature damage. Get 1/5 at level 14 and max it later when you get Acidbeam.

Mind Parasite * Many enemies late game have enough talents that this doesn't actually matter. I never used this ability since even moving is usually a better use of a turn. Get 1/5 so you can get Unstoppable Nature.

Unstoppable Nature **** Nature resist penetration is useless due to Natural Acid but the bonus nature damage is still nice. The Mucus Ooze effect is great but only once if you use Acid Splash. Fortunately equilibrium isn't an issue thanks to Mucus so you don't have to worry about the sustain cost. Suggested 5/5 whenever you have the points to spare.

Corrosive Blades

Your second category point should be used to unlock this tree.

Acidbeam ***** This talent is your best method of applying Natural Acid due to its low cooldown. Even though you won't be getting much bonus acid damage it still is fairly powerful throughout the entire game. Suggested 5/5 ASAP.

Corrosive Nature *** You won't be using acid damage too much but it reduced acid resistance by 50% by the end of the game for me with only one point in it. Suggested 1/5 at level 20.

Corrosive Seeds *** The damage isn't great but it may be worth investing in late game.

Acidic Soil ** You don't do much acid damage and resistance penetration is pretty bad since you have corrosive nature. Healing Bloated Oozes isn't very good since they often die in a few turns so there isn't much reason to get it unless you really like Corrosive Seeds.

Generic Talents

Survival

Heightened Senses **** Great for seeing through dark zones and seeing traps. Get 1/5 from a thief escort and leave it unless you want to be able to disarm traps.

Charm Mastery ** I never used this but it could be worthwhile if you wind a charm you really like.

Piercing Sight *** Lets you see invisible foes more easily. Get this from all your thief escorts after Heightened Senses.

Antimagic

Resolve ***** By the end of the game this gives almost 50% resistance. Get 1/5 immediately and max it later.

Silence **** This talent completely shuts down casters for a few turns. 3/5 gets the radius to 10 but even 1/5 is great.

Antimagic Shield ***** Equilibrium isn't an issue for you thanks to Mucus. This blocks tons of damage and becomes even better with Tricky Defenses. 5/5 this talent fairly quickly.

Mana Clash ***** Great for shutting down casters, especially Corruptors. Suggested 1/5 at level 12 and max it later.

Call of the Wild

Meditation ** You will never use this in fights thanks to Mucus unless you need the healing factor bonus. Suggested 1/5 to regen equilibrium while resting.

Nature's Touch **** This is your only instant heal and it's amazing early game. However, it doesn't benefit much from investing lots of points in it and its mindpower ratio doesn't scale well into the late game. Suggested at least 1/5, maybe more late game.

Earth's Eyes * This is usually a waste of a turn.

Nature's Balance ** Usually you don't have to wait more than a turn to get a useful talent off cooldown. This could be OK if you like abusing Silence or Mana Clash but otherwise its pretty bad.

Mindstar Mastery

Psiblades *** You won't be in melee range often but you need this to use Oozebeam and Acidbeam. Get at least 1/5 by level 10 to use Oozebeam.

Thorny Grab *** This talent is only good because it doesn't take a turn to use. Suggested 1/5.

Leave's Tide ** Evasion is decent but the damage and radius are terrible. Get 1/5 if you want Nature's Equilibrium.

Nature's Equilibrium *** The heal isn't very good and you have to be in melee range of a target to use it, but I'm pretty sure you can hit a Bloated Ooze instead of a foe and it will still work. Even though its worse than Nature's Touch it can still be helpful if Nature's Touch is on cooldown. Get anywhere from 0/5 to 5/5 depending on how often you find yourself at low health with Nature's Touch on cooldown.

Fungus

You get this after completing Storming the City so don't use a category point to unlock this.

Wild Growth ***** Makes your regeneration infusions last over twice as long. 5/5 fairly quickly unless you're using two Regeneration Infusions for some reason.

Fungal Growth *** This is good if you use Nature's Touch within the few turns between when your Regeneration Infusion ends and it comes off cooldown. Other than that its pretty useless since Regeneration Infusions are way better. Get 1/5 and leave it.

Ancestral Life ***** Makes using a Regeneration Infusion take little or no time. It's great with 1/5 but 5/5 is still viable.

Sudden Growth **** I never used this but if I did it would have healed me for 2/3 of my health by the end of the game with only one point. 1/5 or more if you're using a Heroism Infusion.

Combat Training

Unlock this for 50g at Last Hope

Thick Skin ***** This stacks with Reabsorb and Guardian of the Wood. Put points into it whenever possible (hold onto con boosting items for this).

Armor Training *** Get 1/5 if you find a heavy armor you like such as Spellhunt Remains.

Combat Accuracy/Weapons Mastery/Dagger Mastery You use Mindstars, invest zero points in these talents.

Harmony

You can unlock this with a category point if you wish, or you get it unlocked free after the Sandworm Lair.

Waters of Life * This is great on many other classes but completely useless on Oozemancers because of Indiscernible Anatomy.

Elemental Harmony *** You have no way of applying fire, cold, or lightning damage to yourself and your nature and acid AoEs don't hurt you and targeting Slime Spit, Oozebeam, or Acidbeam on yourself might kill you (and possibly apply Corrosive Nature/Natural Acid, I haven't tested this). Still its a decent talent since the sustain cost doesn't matter to Oozemancers once Mucus is maxed.

One with Nature *** This is OK if you use Infusions often but I only really used three regularly (Regeneration, physical Wild, and Wild Growth). This talent may warrant unlocking this tree instead of a fourth or fifth Inscription slot if you only have a few Infusions you like and lots of generic points to spare.

Healing Nexus * This is extremely situational, you probably don't want to get this talent.

Prodigies

I got Spell Feedback and Eye of the Tiger, but these are by no means the only good Prodigies on Oozemancers.

Windtouched Speed ** 15% global speed is decent but you still only have 5 offensive talents worth using so Oozemancers are more hindered by cooldowns than speed. Also its a pain to get 50 dex so plan ahead by holding onto dex boosting items.

Draconic Body ** You have low hp but good regeneration thanks to Fungus and Regeneration Infusions so this isn't actually very good.

Fungal Blood ** Same problem as Draconic Body. At least you use infusions often so you can use this more often.

Draconic Will *** This is OK but Indiscernible Anatomy makes this unnecessary except for blocking stuns, freezes, and confusion.

Meteoric Crash **** This is your only way of applying stun. Don't expect this to deal a ton of damage since you won't be stacking fire or physical damage.

Garkul's Revenge **** +20% damage to all humanoids including Orcs is amazing since late game most of your enemies are Orcs.

Lucky Day *** This is good on Halflings if you like Duck and Dodge and Eye of the Tiger

Spell Feedback **** Great for shutting down casters, but you're already so good against them that this is overkill.

Eye of the Tiger **** Great as long as you don't have too many talents cooling down at once. This is especially good on Halflings thanks to Luck of the Little Folk. Don't get this if you get Slippery or Hallucinogenic Moss.

Tricky Defenses **** Fantastic since you don't have to worry about Antimagic Shield's equilibrium generation.

Inscriptions

A Regeneration Infusion is practically mandatory. The Wild Growth Infusion from the Brotherhood quest is amazing since it deals nature damage and scales with mindpower. Other than that a Physical Wild Infusion is always nice, even with Relentless Pursuit. Movement Infusions are decent for running away but you don't have to do that often. Healing Infusions can be helpful but they definitely aren't necessary, Heroism Infusions are probably better.

General Combat Tips

If an Ooze if blocking your Slime Spit from targeting an enemy, it will bounce of the Ooze to an enemy if you shoot it at your Ooze (this will usually kill the Ooze). If you use Slime Spit on an enemy over 8 range away, you can use Acidbeam to apply Natural Acid before the missile hits. Acid Splash is great for spreading Mucus for Living Mucus. You can Oozewalk to the Mucus created by your Acid Splash. Mucus can be used to keep your Equilibrium low so you can afford to keep Antimagic Shield up at all times.