Critique My Character - lvl 83, Getting my Butt Beat Bad

[toastysquirrel]

Okay, so I'm a level 83 Destroyer on "Hard" and my survivability isn't too bad. But if I tangle with multiple Dragonkin or Dark Zealots I'm pretty much dead in seconds or less. It's been getting crazy frustrating with an otherwise fantastic experience with Torchlight. Below are some screen caps of my stats and equipment.

A little history on how I got here....

My survivability challenge was pretty "fair" up till around level 45 (shortly after finishing the story and doing a few post-story 20+ map dungeons). My mod loadout at the time was pretty benign. Then I got a hold of two mods: "Epic Boss Maps" and "Level 999 Mod SP1" which I installed simultaneously. If you're not aware, the latter mod has a quirky "bug" that gives you INSANE XP for killing Champion mobs. Add that bug to Epic Boss Maps which have TONS of Champions in a single dungeon. Short story: I entered a dungeon at level 53, and by the time I finished all *2* floors I was level 83.

Now that I'm level 83 it seems I die constantly. Especially when I run into certain mobs (so far Dragonkin and Dark Zealots give me the most grief) I die very fast. Dragonkin deal out 700-2,000 damage per micro-second with their fire breath; and DZs quite often instakill me with... something crazy spell. It really sucks.

Why am I dying so much now? Is the armor I'm wearing and the elemental resistances I have inadequate for my level? Did the jump in XP I experienced from the Epic+Level mod combo put my character out of synch? It sure feels like it.

Please help, my destroyer is now super frustrating to play.

Relevant Mods:
~Jarcho's Class Compilation v1.3
~Level 999 Mod SP1
~Epic Boss Maps
~Total Respec
~Dark Zealot Rebalance (doesn't seem to have an effect ??)

Loadout

Spoiler: show

[VenerableSage]

For starters, I've always felt that Runic never really bothered to test the tuning and scaling of enemies beyond the encounter with Ordrak; so, once you get into the Shadow Vault or any of the other locations that basically match your character level, the enemies just become absolutely a pain. Being a Dual-Wield Melee Destroyer only really amplifies the problem, I've found, since the Alchemist and Vanquisher can reliably take out most enemies before they even get close enough to hit. You're basically forced to get hit as that kind of Destroyer.

Of all of the enemies in TL1, the Dragonkin and Dark Zealots are definitely the most troublesome and unbalanced; I think it's safe to say that everyone hates them. But, regardless of that, I'd probably wager that your gear is a bit lower than it probably should be. I've got a 65 Alchemist (Str/Mag/Def build) and his gear basically matches what you've got on at 83 in terms of DPS and armor values. Your resistances, barring Poison, look to be pretty good, but I've never leveled a character to 80+ yet, so I can't really speak to whether they're actually good in practice or not.

The low Poison Resistance may be one reason why you're getting one-shot by the Dark Zealots; their Poison Bolt attack is notably bugged, causing it to do absolutely massive damage (still not sure why that was never fixed). The Dark Zealot Rebalance mod, from what I've guessed having used it myself, only balances the lightning attack that it does to be more reasonable in terms of damage. The pretty much universal solution to combating Dark Zealots is just to max out on % Chance to Reflect Missiles gear. It doesn't matter if it's "15% Chance to Reflect 20%" or "40% Chance to Reflect 10%", it's the first number that counts. Once that hits 100%, you'll automatically reflect all missiles (though the damage reflected back will vary depending on the second number, should they hit), which will spare you from the Poison Bolt attack.

If you haven't already, you also might consider installing a mod that adds gear tailored beyond Epic quality (either Ancient or Mythic - both seem to accomplish the same thing). That might help with the gear issue as well.

[toastysquirrel]

For starters, I've always felt that Runic never really bothered to test the tuning and scaling of enemies beyond the encounter with Ordrak; so, once you get into the Shadow Vault or any of the other locations that basically match your character level, the enemies just become absolutely a pain. Being a Dual-Wield Melee Destroyer only really amplifies the problem, I've found, since the Alchemist and Vanquisher can reliably take out most enemies before they even get close enough to hit. You're basically forced to get hit as that kind of Destroyer.

Of all of the enemies in TL1, the Dragonkin and Dark Zealots are definitely the most troublesome and unbalanced; I think it's safe to say that everyone hates them. But, regardless of that, I'd probably wager that your gear is a bit lower than it probably should be. I've got a 65 Alchemist (Str/Mag/Def build) and his gear basically matches what you've got on at 83 in terms of DPS and armor values. Your resistances, barring Poison, look to be pretty good, but I've never leveled a character to 80+ yet, so I can't really speak to whether they're actually good in practice or not.

The low Poison Resistance may be one reason why you're getting one-shot by the Dark Zealots; their Poison Bolt attack is notably bugged, causing it to do absolutely massive damage (still not sure why that was never fixed). The Dark Zealot Rebalance mod, from what I've guessed having used it myself, only balances the lightning attack that it does to be more reasonable in terms of damage. The pretty much universal solution to combating Dark Zealots is just to max out on % Chance to Reflect Missiles gear. It doesn't matter if it's "15% Chance to Reflect 20%" or "40% Chance to Reflect 10%", it's the first number that counts. Once that hits 100%, you'll automatically reflect all missiles (though the damage reflected back will vary depending on the second number, should they hit), which will spare you from the Poison Bolt attack.

If you haven't already, you also might consider installing a mod that adds gear tailored beyond Epic quality (either Ancient or Mythic - both seem to accomplish the same thing). That might help with the gear issue as well.

Thanks for all that, VenerableSage.
Any recommendations on an equipment tier mod? I was exploring the Level999v2.5 mod that has some tier updates in it, but it seems with that mod my game crashes on load all the time. From what I read I *think* it has to do with "too many files" be loaded by TL1 causing the crash? I'm not totally sure but I think between the afore mentioned mod and JCC there's a TON of new files being accessed. I haven't really had much luck looking for other high level equipment mods.

Doesn't the vanilla version of TC max out a character at level 100 along with gear to match? Or is the equipment geared towards what you said, where the item levels tend be centered around the Ordak climax (level 30-35??) ?

Thanks

[VenerableSage]

Thanks for all that, VenerableSage.
Any recommendations on an equipment tier mod? I was exploring the Level999v2.5 mod that has some tier updates in it, but it seems with that mod my game crashes on load all the time. From what I read I *think* it has to do with "too many files" be loaded by TL1 causing the crash? I'm not totally sure but I think between the afore mentioned mod and JCC there's a TON of new files being accessed. I haven't really had much luck looking for other high level equipment mods.

Doesn't the vanilla version of TC max out a character at level 100 along with gear to match? Or is the equipment geared towards what you said, where the item levels tend be centered around the Ordak climax (level 30-35??) ?

Thanks

No problem.

I'm personally using the Tier3 Mythic Items mod, but it's functionally similar to the Tier3 Ancient Items mod. You can use either, pretty much. They both scale up to 90 or so. The guy who did the Mythic mod has a Tier4 set, but it doesn't do too much unless you have something changing the level cap beyond 100. These were both created because TL1 only has regular and Epic quality gear, the latter of which tends to start petering out in terms of usefulness by the 60s.

If your game is crashing upon load, it probably means that there's a conflict between the mods that you've got installed. You might consider downloading HotSpot if you're able to run it and don't have it yet. It makes managing mods significantly easier, and it'll inform you if you have any conflicts with your mods. (You don't even need to remove the ones that you've already got installed, since it will register that they're there even if it didn't install them itself.)

[yaheshua]

I agree with venerablesage in that your equipment is quite low for your level. That sudden "level-up"'s you had on the champion map didn´t give you time to gather items of good quality. If you want to continue with your char (i'd personally retire him and start fresh with other), i'd advise you to grind for gear on separate maps (the "1-10, 20-40" kind), not on the shadow vault for the moment. Also, the frost shield skill (titan tree) could help you diminish the damage done to you.

[KickTheBukkit]

only advice i can give is to gear up to those monsters (i had to kite like crazy back in the day, now i know how to handle those things hehe)

so get some better gear (enchant -> luck based though) and kite a bit (try to single them out and pick 'm off one by one)

i also use the dual wield slash skill (use it more then my primary haha) wich does massive damage when they are packed.

[DarkTails]

Nevermind, someone covered it above lol

I thought the lightning attack was the one that was bugged though

[Kham]

I almost have these resists on my level 30 vhhc Destroyer o.O

Don`t think Zealots are bugged just think you have terrible resists.