Another bloggy playthrough diary :)

[Lujo]

Also, in an extra bit of (attempt at) apology to the Tinker and a(n attempt at a) feat of spellcasting hipsterdom, I went to to the "buy everything in Hex ruins" quest with:

RUN Elven Rogue of TT (prepped) vs Hex (Goo 2nd boss) + Buy all items! - Eh, Wonnafyt right next to the entrance, Binlors altar too, smashed binlor, no tribute, killed the goo with only 13 mana off of 3 dings, proceeded to kill everything, buy everything, chanced a few dodges agaisnt high level stuff, only dodged one single hit (even had extra dodge from TT boon). Found both Wonnafyt and Wheytwut, messed up all the gorgons and goblins. Took 3 Tikki's Edge. Killed everything before killing Stheno in 2 attacks (one hit + 1 TT potion). Made more money than Michael Bay.

Didn't feel so much like a spellcaster, because I was at 13-14 mana all run long, but it did feel like I was playing one of my old-school TT romps and it was hilarios. Not that I couldn't have been a kickass spellcaster on top of that if I wanted, but the difficulty was low and everything only took one fireball and possibly slow to kill. And I was holding onto my money because I was unsure if I would need tribute on top of the buyout so I didn't buyout & converted cheap crap right away, which in retrospect was a mistake. And everything in my inventory was useful as slowing gave me piety etc etc.

I guess I just can't grasp the idea of spending resources to get my mana up, I look at which class I am and if I'm not a sorcerer I instinctively think that "the run doesn't require me to have above 12 or so anyway, otherwise I would've been a sorcerer" and if I'm a sorcerer - "I solved any mana issues I might've had at the prep screen". It's totally me, tbh, even prepping extra mana is "solving mana quota's too late". I'll try for a more "elfier" Elf Rogue next time. I did have 20 mana efter converting a lot of stuff and I though I'd be fireballing Stheno, but I also had a load of damage so I it was quicker to just dodgestep her.

Still - as a prop to Tinker, if this was a 2 level run I would've been a really nasty spellcaster downstairs witha 20 mana mana pool, so I gotta try this on Naga City or someplace like that, as it seems like a hella legit strat. Get a set of potions, swap into mystera, work my way to Mystic balance, get the keg and yendor... Looks like a really good strat.

[Astral]

I phrased badly when I said Blood Curse doesn't increase your regen. It does temporarily, but only makes it equal to your new level. So by 'level 10' you only have 10 regen, as opposed to using the sigil, which would make it 11.

In the meantime I remembered there's a class other than Monks with buffed regen
Sorcerers! If you're casting nonstop, you have a flat +2 regen bonus. That's why Sorcs are so strong early, you have triple-double regen which you can hold off too.

Too bad you didn't take bearmace with you on take 1. I were in similar situation before, but peakabooing can very quickly earn the piety for a Mana Boost, and all your problems are gone then.
Shifting Passages isn't very BM friendly to begin with, those changelings are bloodless I presume, and the new walls can often steal bloodpools too. The wall blocking your trophy was a real troll
But if you worshiped EM you could have ended in a much worse situation than that.

Heh, missclicks. Recently my funniest one was getting killed by a poisoned, worn down warlock with an Assassin. Predictor said WIN, but I had a little bit of leftover mana for Pisorf, so why not earn some Binlor piety before the ding? Pushed him into wall and not checking his new location I double clicked him. When he was touching 1 black tile, cancelling my 1st strike

Before that I must have missclicked on my Whupaz on my Gorgon VGT run. And I only noticed it when I was standing next to H. Of course it made the difference between victory and defeat...

Back to your playthrough, nice job utilizing Penance! I was thinking about making the comparison to HH too, but I wasn't sure if it would give the message I was looking for

Whenever playing an Elf you should start converting for max mana from the start so you benefit from it for the rest of the run. It's the exact opposite of playing a Gnome, who are totally okay with keeping every glyph.

This is also why most Elves don't like MA that much. Sure, they could benefit a lot from 2 virtual Schadenfreudes, but not at the cost of keeping all glyphs. TT is naturally good for every Elf, more gold means more CP or spellcasting items and extra learning = awesomness. Also, most of the power of Elves comes from ding based refills, not mana potions, that's why it's sensible following JJ too. And he has 2 full refills if you peakaboo too.

I totally get you on 'what's the point of increasing max mana?' mentality. I had a similar one, 'what's the point of drinking potions?' in my case. I mean, even when I tried non synergistic Elves I could fireball down anything parched or kill stuff the way my class was meant to be used anyways. Without spellcasting gods.
But it was keeping me from properly enjoying Gnomes, so after I while I gave up on playing parched with them. I recommend you doing the same with Elves. Against your better judgement start converting early and with your extended mana pool go after high level kills and pile popcorn. It's a different experience. If you try non synergistic Elves too, you'll see max mana isn't about firaballing/pisorfing only, but any creative glyph combo you can come up with

[Lujo]

[Lujo]

Went and unlocked Mage Plate, did Wizard Bronze and Wizard Silver with an Orc Wizard (because habits and also some vague memory about Pissorf being kinda the solution to most spellcaster challenges). Funny thing, I used high level Illusions in the Malfunctionarium to farm the "Get weakened" mini task which kinda got stuck on my screen and is hard to rotate out of. I hope you can do it using challenges

EDIT: Went and also did Wizard Gold, and yeah, Orc Wizard pissorffed those two clowns one into the other, and trying to do it any other way is sort of an excercise in frustration (I remember this well from a very frustrating playthrough, with all spellcasters, pissorf rules their challenges).

[Astral]

That video was priceless
I guess I found a new channel to check out.

The Assassin death was 100% my mistake. I took the 1st strike as granted, so didn't factor in the right angle for Pisorf. No bug there. It's just so niche it's very hard to avoid dying on if you're as trigger happy with your mouse as I am.

Good thing you brought up Potions. As unbelievable as it is, it makes good use of taking 1-2 levels of poison strike on an Elf. With 3-4 sets of dodgestep if you tank the boss you can poison him enough to refill yourself for 2-3 more fireballs, or more if you apply burning. A small nuance, but it made me win on some screwy VT Elf PQi before.

You're right about making good use of your glyphs before conversion is important. So a better advice about glyph conversion is trying to optimize between flexibility and spiking potential, and learning when should you convert even your previously highly valued glyphs too. Mastering it on Elves will carry over to Human/Orc runs too.
Also on strats that let you explore most of the map at lvl1 it's much easier too.

Mage Plate sure has to be great on Michael Bay

Next to Assassins Rouges are the best at popcorn munching.

[Lujo]

[Lujo]

Hmmm, BM silver stil a pain in the nethers.

I did BM Bronze with an Elf Bloodmage, not much to say it's a story level. Then I failed twice in BM silver with a Halfling Bloodmage (not the best idea without gods, ofc, but I knew it was gonna go wrong just needed to refresh my memory of what the problem is, and I think I know now, but it'll take unlocking BURN SALVE).

So I did

- RUN Eastern Tundra with a Human Warlord of EM hoarder - quick stomp to unlock Fortitude potion.

- RUN Western Jungle with Dwarf Berserker of Drac (prepped) Warmonger, quick and efficient stomp to unlock burn salve, yeah these guys are good, even Blood Curse is legit as you have enough health to fight way above both your actual and your Blood Curse level and it saves time regenning and gets you that Blood Shield quicker. Bloody Sigil also legit with all that, ofc.

Then:

- RUN Michael Bay on Northern Desert - cheeky! For Str potion and Scoodenfreundy just because, and to practice my Michael Bay. It was GLORIOUS. Scored Mage plate right off the bat, took me a while to find a slowing glyph, but the low difficulty meant I was spiking like a boss while I was looking for the glyph and actually converted a ton of junk (also had Pennance preppd because why not? It's too expensive to prep but, hey, it kinda works). But then I scored a Wicked (edit) Guitar in the shop XD Also had a really low-ceiling B2P adding more fireballs. For the big finalle and a completely unnecessary Unstoppable I converted into a super-late JJ, desecrated TT, desecrated Mystera, and spontaneously roleplaying Michael Bay, instead of just converting some more stuff for Chaos Avatar I stupidly went for Last Chance at 76 piety. And it worked!

- NOTE to self - next time don't convert subdungeon acessing glyphs, or otherwise take the blue alchemist seal, subdungeons are huge for this build. Make that - pack the blue seal anyway, whatever you do with it is good.

- RUN Dwarf Monk of Dracul (prepped) on Rock Garden (SMM) - DING! Max. Complicated Tasks.

I went in with the Wicked Guitar thinking it was the Titan Guitar, but I entered the subdungeon and there was the Titan Guitar in there, so I picked that up, went out, swapped guitars, went back in. It was kinda tricky even with the walls gone (it's kinda disorienting tbh, you still waste a bunch of exploration), but hey, Blood Curse into Blood Shield, EM desecration and spoon pickup into Burn Salve, 3 hits of sanguine, killed SMM first, then fireballed one guy while slaping the other and dinging through the fight. Will be a fine old build on a different level when I have Vampiric Blade.

- NOTE on Glyph Crunching Golem Subdungeon - You get a hit of learning from IMAWAL, which is handy to know. You get all three alchemy seals from LEMISI which is UNBELIEVABLY BUSTED. If it didn't take much work, subdungeons really ought have codex entries with unlockable info just like the gods. I wonder if this damned thing could power someone through an 11 badge run? Well, scored me a free Mana Keg for the locker off off a purple seal, nice

- NOTE on Sanguine - Did this thing get nerfed while I wasn't looking?

- RUN Orc Sorcerer of Taurog - Warmonger - Berserker Camp

Had to be Warmonger for the witch, also went parched and unstoppable. This place was incessantly complained about, particulartly this quest so it got nerfed into the ground. Sitnaltaxes research also indicates that it actually has the lowest numbers on it's enemies, and there's a ton of magic damage guys, so a Taurogzerker has an easier time here than probably anything else. In fact, I suspect that an actual spellcaster would have a harder time than a Warmonger sorcerer, especially without packing Soul Orb.

- RUN Goblin Priest of GG (prepped) in Magma Mines - Parched

Final Witch quest, also went DING! Max and Unstoppable. And Enlightment, which is great for Goblins a it dings you very often. Didn't feel so much like a special witch run, as much as an old-school GG run, with 5 straight up Absolutions, humility, translocating a keg for piety, troll heart on top of all that for huge ass health and burning protections for 5+ kills. Had a TT desecration along the way when I was a few hits away from success, also used a STR potion and a Scadenfraude as ghetto TT potions or a big lvl difference kill at one point. V fun GG game, no cleansings, no cheap tricks.

[Lujo]

So I ran out of money which ment I needed one more run before I attempt BM Silver again, and made an epic failwin.

- RUN Halfling Berserker of Binlor in the Labyrinth (Bleaty!) looking for Nose Ring (and also fighter class wins)

See, I remember having a disproportionate ammount of trouble with the Berserker here compared to other guys so I decided to get him out of the way first. Binlor Halflin isn't the best combo on it's own, but it turned out to be exactly right, since the other boss was Bleaty, so Stoneskin + Healing potion spam + one DP got him and Rex done after a meticulous Wheytwut based binoring of all the walls. Wasn't easy, mind you, but I didn't actually take Endiswall

The fail part? I was slamming Rex into Bleaty, so Rex went down first, and me being an idiot sold the Nose Ring. D'oh!

NOTE on Stoneskin spike. Looks inefficient, but you are slapping 2 guys into one another, you just need to make sure you have base damage as that's what counts for knockback. Trisword on a Halfling is the best bet most likely. Have to remember this next time. Pairs well with the Halfling Berserker, as the Halfling provides steady heals and the Berserker brings the magic res, so it's a much better pairing than it looks. Bear Mace is a must though.

EPIC WIN!

- Bloodmage Silver with Halfling Bloodmage with ~~BURN SALVE~~ (and Witchalok Pendant and Bear mace).

Went without a hitch. Got Wonnafyt, spammed it, went unstoppable, was careful about saving bloodpools while doing it, made sure I open up space with the bear mace wherever possible to make more room for plants and more knockback opportunities. Bought a fine sword and almmost FAILED HARD by purchasing any of the million useful looking items and running out of gold for a ~~BURN SALVE~~. Then I was careful to only kill regular and poison plants, used up my remaining blackspace after having used up my mana potions, then konckbacked the guy into walls with 2 byceps uses off of health pools.

Then when he finally croaked, I cleaned up all the plants but one (which would've had me dring a bp and get mana burned out of a mana point), sucked up all the acid off the floor and drank the ~~BURN SALVE~~. Having drunk the ~~BURN SALVE~~ I proceded to pick up all the Tokoloshe Charms to get the MR up for the melle fight, converted all my glyphs but Byceps (got some damage out of it) for my Dracul impersonation, I moped up the remaining bloodpools for Byceps mana and HP, and then health potion-spiked and knockbacked for the win.

I hate and detest this challenge, and while it might be doable somehow without ~~BURN SALVE~~, even looking for a way to do it is an excercise in masochism. Either there should be a guaranteed ~~BURN SALVE~~, it should not unlock before you've unlocked ~~BURN SALVE~~, you should be able to customize your potion preps or there should be more gold in the run so that you don't mess up and not have enough to buy the ~~BURN SALVE~~.

I'm not even cranky, and whatever else works, this totaly trashed the level, flowed smoothly, transitioned beautifuly, but I could've been trying for days without ~~BURN SALVE~~ and I'd never make it. I could even come to a conclusion that the Halfling can't even do it and that the solution has to be something else, when in fact the Halfling OWNs this place by providing a health spike equal to bringing a god into the run, which lets you use all your other resources at the appropriate time, and use that spike when you're at your highest level and CP is all you could possibly have left over. And also pad out a leveling spike here and there.

I'm glad I have my dwarf enabler unlocked, but this is a really awkward and kinda random skill wall to put that thing behind, especially considering other silver challenges. Even withut all the burn salve nonsense.

RUN Bloodmage Goldd - Orc Bloodmage Took one quick try to remember what the catch is at all, did it easily on the second try. Orc Bloodmage with Pissorff, a Cydstep for the final strike, Mage Plate for mana, and a bunch of B2P on an empty map at one point. One ding. No bloodpools lying on the map, guy doesn't heal. His damage doesn't budge, but who cards, I Wonnadyted a dude next to him, and just threw a million Pissorfs. Way I remember it it's also doable in many other ways.

Bloodmage Silver is harder than most Golds and Bloodmage Gold is easier than most Silvers (and deffinitely easier than Bloodmage Silver). I can't for the life of me understand why they aren't the other way around, and whatever the reason is it probably isn't good enough.

[sitnaltax]

[Lujo]

^ Naaah, what happened to you is pure luck that he didn't blink to the side of the map where you cant get without corroding yourself to death. I got to lvl 9 with efficient kiling, everything left over and had it not been for the burn salve I would've lost. Both previous runs, too, same thing, no possible way to lose - except he blinks behind a cluster of corrosive plants, and if you have BS you trouce, if you don't game over. You basically described all 3 of my runs, except the plants spawned in your favor, and 3 times they spawned as to end the run for me. And I didn't really care about any plants but the corrosive ones, I was just being very careful so as to not mess something up.

Try it 5 times in a row.

Also keep in mind that I have barely anything unlocked - and you don't NEED anything unlocked, you just need the damend burn salve. What's most annyoing though is that this can only happen when you're allready ass deep into the run, so it's both tedious and annoying.

*One more thing why it's liable to happen is that you don't care about any plants but the corrosive ones, so while he blinks around you occasionally kill the other ones. If he blinks a lot, and if you fireball him he does, eventually there WILL be clusters of corrosive crap around, and every time he blinks behind somethign after a fireball more plants spawn. I've had it happen 3 times, killing him isn't a problem, nothing at all is the problem, just that. And it's way harder than most golds.

*Also, there might be entirely different ways to play it, with RBS and god knows what, but this way you basicaly can't lose - if you bring a Burn Salve, and with the Burn Salve it's about as tough as the tougher golds (really, regardless of whether IT is really tough, most golds are way easier). Without it it's just trolling.