Any tips to do better with Transmuter?

[quinton77]

Hello everyone,

I unlocked transmuter recently and was doing the "Do Cursed Oasis with Dwarves on Transmuter, Tinker and Crusader" quest and I found out I horribly suck at using Transmuters (it was by some miracle that I beat slime pit as a goblin transmuter).

I've been looking at the spirit sword (wipes all mana, adds it and 5 to your base damage every time you cross the conversion threshold) as well as the other perk that gives you +3 conversion points on glyph use as an obstacle since it seems to always happen at inopportune times (okay, I can kill this guy with three burns and a strike, so one burn, two burn... oh there went all my MP and the strike won't be strong enough to kill him... guess I'll have to drink a potion now).

I've been thinking about it a bit and I am supposing that Transmuter is really for powering up a really really strong attack against a prime target (likely the boss) since (and I haven't tried this yet) you could theoretically explore to fill up on MP, convert something, explore some more to fill up MP, convert some other things and just keep adding to your base damage for that really really powerful hit. This should kinda cool to try out, but it sounds horribly inefficient since a level 10 BURNDAYRAZ should be getting 40/6 = 6.67 damage per MP and this usage could only get perhaps 2 damage per MP use if you have 100% bonus damage.

So what are the tricks to using Transmuter well? I have video proof of doing horribly at Transmuter... but it's more of an embarrassment now and I just want to learn how to do better.

Thanks!

[FuscaBat]

Hi Quinton,

Let's consider the traits one at a time:

Dungeon Lore (Start with LEMMISI):
The first thing you want to do as a transmuter is cast LEMMISI several times to scout out altars and glyphs. The early game is made fairly easy when you know where the glyphs are, and knowing which gods are available can help you plan out a strategy.

Inner Focus (+3 CP for Casting Glyphs):
You will want to take advantage of this by casting spells whenever possible. You can easily gain several hundred CP, especially if you can use cheap spells. As a dwarf, you should end the dungeon with around 200 hp!

Spirit Sword (Conversion Threshold Drains Mana and Adds Damage to your Next Attack):
This is all about timing. With Inner Focus, you will trigger spirit sword sometime in the early game and again in the midgame, and you can use it to target a higher level kill for some nice bonus experience. Be mindful that the damage boost does NOT depend on the amount of MP drained, it only depends on maximum MP! Spirit sword does NOT stack! Try to use all your mana before triggering spirit sword. If you can't do that, then then try regening after triggering spirit sword, before attacking. Try to convert glyphs whenever you need to do just a bit more damage to secure a kill.

I might be able to give better feedback if I can see a video...

Good luck!

-FuscaBat

[shade_of_ox]

First of all, Spirit Swords don't stack. So your strategy you're imagining won't really work. Spirit Sword, when your CP threshold fills, wipes your mana, adds your MAX MANA (important, MAX, not current) + your level to your base damage temporarily. If you happen to fill another CP threshold, you just get the same effect again.

Personally I find Transmuter is one of those classes that is a bit unintuitive to play. Spirit Sword is extremely strong in the early game, but late game it can just get in the way. You can especially be tripped up if you're playing a late-game conversion class.

As above, the main point of the class is planning. There are basically three ways to use Spirit Sword:

- leveling

- make a non-popcorn enemy popcorn (bit of a niche use)

- extra raw damage against a boss

For leveling, it's all about planning. As above said, if you plan it out properly you can get two Spirit Sword strikes in on a single enemy without having to convert anything and without wasting mana (hint: start attacking when you are 6-9 points away from a CP threshold, with a full mana bar, depending on if you have GETINDARE and how much mana you have). Added to CYDSTEPP, or precasting ENDISWAL, and GETINDARE or just fireballs, this gives you a very high damage spike that should let you get level+3 or higher kills fairly easily. Just make sure not to get carried away with casting glyphs for this, because you want to keep some blackspace around for the boss fights, etc.

This is a bit specific, but if you're in the middle of a boss fight and need just a little bit more EXP for a level up, but are out of easy popcorn, you can use Spirit Sword to secure a level up.

Against a boss, there's less thinking involved. Just spend your entire mana bar and then go ahead and make your conversions for a nice +30 or so damage boost for each strike. The only thing to be careful about is to try and avoid reaching two thresholds at once (for example, converting a 100 CP glyph on an Elf when you already have over 40 CP) since you'll be wasting a Spirit Sword in that case. For this reason, More Glyphs is a good prep for this class, though attack boosters is also quite worthwhile.

Quick rundown on builds: Good items are bonus damage. Dragon Soul gets a special mention for earning you free CP. Human is obviously really nice and makes short work of the boss, but will have a harder time leveling. My favorite race for this class is actually Goblin, because the level ups override the mana wipe from Spirit Sword, making it much more convenient to play.

There is also the Infinimuter build, which isn't really related to actually playing the class but is pretty cool nonetheless. I direct you to this video by Choongmyoung: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ1qehEXlLk

TL;DR: Plan leveling kills carefully, and go for fragile enemies such as Goats, Gorgons, etc. For bosses, just spend your CP and be careful not to trigger the CP threshold more than once per conversion.

EDIT: Oh, and don't use LEMMISI too much. Unless you're in a map with a lot of unreachable blackspace, all you should be doing with LEMMISI is casting it a few times to find your glyphs and altars and then finding an opportune time to convert it and free up space in your inventory. Or if you're not hurting for inventory space, just go ahead and carry it til the boss fight.

[thzfunnymzn]

I'll add in that, to my knowledge, Refreshment happens after Spirit Sword. So, Mystera Gnome Transmuter is an option for lots of Fireballs. Just got to plan carefully so you don't waste Fireballs, as well as make use of Spirit Swords. (Wiki lists Elves as a good option for abusing Refreshment here. Personally disagree, having tried such a combo, but to each his own).

Sorry, doesn't help with that particular quest, and I know that quest is painful. shade gave a nice run down of Transmuter though, so I figured I'd add in anything I could.

[srid]

If it might help, here is the video I recorded with a Halfling Transmuter, trying to farm 30 health potions in one run (I only got 29).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX0eSpHT72s

It's not exactly standard Transmuter play, but hopefully it at least demonstrates how Spirit Sword can help getting a few good kills while leveling.

[choongmyoung]

[Spleen]

One other thing about Transmuters: they love subdungeons. You can burn LEMMISI and BLUDTUPOWA uses in the fully-explored subdungeon to gain crazy stats. Here's 2 runs to show that off. (I guess this isn't really 'standard' play, either, because of how much more desirable Orcs are..)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imgClqQMQsk
(kinda slow because i haven't played in a couple months)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y20SYguXE4M
(having fun with one of the strongest subdungeons, with anybody)

[shade_of_ox]

Oh hey, it's my favorite VS layout again...