Delicious Vlish

I can confirm that the utterly worthless corrupted thahd is still in the game. Ugh.

Darn right Skippy!

I don't mean to nit pick, but spelling errors can anger some people.

I don't have a completed save file on hand... I want to know too!

So are charged vlish still in the game or is the beloved terror vlish returned? I grew so disgusted with charged creations that I never even bothered with buying a second level of skills to reach the third tier, after a few initial tests.

So, how does it feel to play a mental magic focus servile? The game is remarkably easy, right? Don't forget terror. It is useful right up to the end.

Strange, when I got to level 3 for rots, I was offered a charged rot. Did something change?

What do you mean, this is not so?

At the point you reach the glaahk infested city, you are unlikely to have strong daze. But you might. It is possible to get strong daze before reaching the storm plains. As a dedicated shaper build, it is doubtful that you will have the cranked out spellcraft and mental magic required to daze glaahks for any length of time, if at all. As such, creations will be required to fend for themselves. The whole point of a dedicated shaper build is to have your creations doing all of the work and the heavy lifting. This means skimping out. As such, your mental magic and such will not be as well developed as you might like. Certain things might still work, like terror, but daze will be dicey.

Not over-dramatic at all. I like to keep things green when facing swarms. And you keep going on and on about wingbolts. Certainly nothing wrong with them, but they are not the end all solution. I've found they didn't hold up all that well. An example... Hrm, like when you face a ruined city full of glaahks. And your creations keep getting stunned. Acid damage is awfully handy there. (And so are bottlenecks) Or facing the brutal bandit serviles who are heavily magic resistant and physically resistant. They also inflict a lot of physical damage.

It does enough damage to counter balance the health gain of powerful levels of regeneration. It kills, even though it takes time. Things can't regenerate or heal very well when being worn slowly down with poison or acid. It is now of vital importance to make sure you have a means of acid or poison application. Roamers, clawbugs, artillas, all useful. Burning spray and acid shower are also two of the best spells for this very reason. Here is my problem with artillas in this game. Enemy AI. When an enemy takes acid, poison, or some means of lingering damage, they tend to go after the source of said damage. This can mean your shaper. Your sorceress. Your toon. When said monster takes poison damage, and then goes after your artilla, the artilla can take quite a beating. I'd much rather have a clawbug or two out front, poisoning enemies and keeping aggression managed, as well as having the monsters in a nice neat clump if I am playing with a dedicated shaper strategy rather than a caster strategy. I can drop area of effect assaults on that area with impunity and the lingering poison damage means that my shaper stays safe because monster aggression stays pinged on the clawbug. Of course, this isn't always the case. Occasionally, something breaks off and decides it wants a bite of delicious helpless shaper. That's what terror is for. With all this in mind, I have found that acid shower can be a very risky spell for a dedicated shaper type to cast. Best to do it behind it a bottleneck, like a clogged up doorway or a narrow bit of terrain clogged up with your creations.

How well does an artilla defend it self? Now, how well does a clawbug defend it self? Both do poison damage. Which is mostly useful for stopping monster regen. However, both are useful.

Wingbolts are common midgame... Not so much in the endgame. I mean there are some, but not as much as, say, G4. As a gut feeling, I'd say that kyshaaks and rots are the most common end game fodder, with a sprinkling of eye tyrants, a few drakons, and plenty of unbound depending on your path. Oh... And I believe creations can only go up +6 six now. It was changed. Am I correct? Also, in the Vlish's favour, you can get a Vlish early on, and it will level the whole game, the same can not be said for a wingbolt. You can clear level 40 before ever getting a chance to create a wingbolt, unless you rush ahead early. Edit: Battle shaping also has excellent ancillary effects. Sorry, gotta toot that horn.

Also, raising stats is dirt cheap now... Want to see a real terror? Max out strength, dex, int, and endurance on a Vlish. You can do it fairly early too, and it really doesn't cost that much. When said Vlish is about level 50, you have quite a minion. Mid range creations are quite a good deal really... Stats are still cheap enough to max out with out to much essence drain, you get them early on so they can grow with you, and most of them are cheap to create initially. Vlish are great investments and can take you through the endgame. (Along with other creations) During my beta experience, I'd make whole mobs of a creation to tide me over, absorb all of them but one, the strongest usually, (like a cryoa) and then make the next batch of next tier creations when I had the chance. Then I'd save one of those too. Having a good mix was actually valuable... Once I had the chance, I'd have a cryoa or two, a Vlish, (my namesake) a couple of battle creations, a plated artilla (powerful acid damage) or whatever magic creations were handy and I had access to. Keeping stuff around works. I love the change to make creations cheaper to upgrade.

Combat skills... Batons are nice. There are a few nice swords. Parry and quick action. Uh, at about level 40 to 50, there isn't a lot left to crank out. So you sink a few points in to your melee skills because they're cheap, they round you out nicely, and it is something to do. You certainly don't have to do it, but what else are you going to do with all those leftover points? Pump luck? You could drop a few odd points in shaping I guess, to crank out disposable creations with out having to change clothes. I assure you, there isn't a whole lot to do at this point. Adding to combat skills is a nice distraction.

It would be a shaper's game except that you really don't need to add points to shaping. Oh, you can add points, but why bother? You can get a shaper's robe rather early. Forge items. Find items. This is why the Shock Trooper suddenly has a new lease on life... High essence, high energy, and the ability gain roughly 9 to 12 points in magic levels entirely through items. No real need to boost shaping, even though you can. What's left to crank? Physical stats. Strength, dex, int, and endurance, and lots of it. And some of your melee skills if you feel like it. You can pretty much ignore shaping skills and magic skills and still do just fine. You can clear level 30 before ever reaching the stoneworks. Heck, you can hit level 40 before hitting the stoneworks. You can have a character with all of the physical stats around 10 or so, plus whatever boosts come from items like the gruesome charm. Did I mention that shock troopers get insane hit point levels, essence levels, and energy levels? I mean, absolutely stupid numbers. Edit: I actually hit level 40 before the stoneworks, and there were still areas to clear. I actually complained that nothing was giving me experience. I was told it was time to move on.

60, if you are especially murderous I think. I came awful close, I think I could have cleared that if I was a bit more blood thirsty.

http://www.ironycentral.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=84398#Post84398 Sadly, the link to the discussion in the first post is dead. Thread still very useful though. Note the remarks about mental magic.

Firebolt that does lingering lightning damage.

They kinda stink now. The stun isn't as strong as it was in previous games. Still a strong and good creation, but they don't do much damage by the time you manage to get them. At that point, there are better creations available. Unless of course you sneak into an Unbound infested ruin and use the canister, which is right out if you play no canister. So that means you get wingbolts and glaahks at the same time, when you buy them as skills. Glaahks lack the hit points and the defense to stay on the front line, and they get shredded in very little time. You can't go and buff them out the wazoo, as was previous, because of the aura nerf. They are fragile, and require a great deal of baby sitting, because at the point you get them, you are facing enemies quite capable of shredding them to pieces. Drakons, unbound, eye tyrants, servile cultists and warriors, etc. On the other hand, playing as a loyalist, you can get battle alphas rather early. REAL early actually. Early enough to really give you a leg up on your enemies. Early enough to make the stoneworks golems a complete cake walk. Early enough that you can level them for a bit, get the right stuff together, and go in and clean out the unbound infested ruins and get rewards. And then you can get upgraded to beta status with out canisters. (Well, eventually)

But the tables do not reflect in game experience. Using betas in the end game works. So do rots and tralls. They are viable now... And this is good info for people who want to play no canister loyal to the shaper types. Betas are one of your best options for a low cost but effective shock troop. Battle alphas aren't bad either, but betas are like immovable rocks. For some reason, they start off at insanely high levels, even with low shaping skill, get a ton of hit points, and they are actually sturdy now.

That's no longer true. Eyebeasts and gazers can easily take a 200 or more hit point chomp right out of you, and stun you to boot. Or cause instant terror.

Glaahks do ALL magic damage and no physical. Against end game magic resistant enemies, they do about 20 to 30 damage per sting. Not much at all. Betas on the other hand, tended to do about 60 to 80 against physically resistant enemies. Considerably more against things with no physical resist. Jeff did something right this time with battle shaping. Please, play the game, don't just look at the tables. Lay the smack down with melee mobs and rejoice.

Plated bugs are exceptionally tough though, do excellent damage, and tend to have a fair bit of health. I like to mix them with clawbugs. Did I mention that battle creations are exceptionally good finally? You could finish the game with nothing but dedicated battle shaping quite easily... Especially with clawbugs and rots providing poison and acid damage. Oh, and betas are GOOD.

I usually only added a few points to melee skills and used items to boost them. With such strong magic, (blessing) melee skills don't need to be pumped all that much to be effective.