Pure Gunz Alchemist Build ~guide~ by Hectic1

[hectic1]

first off u will mainly use buffs and passives with this build but it pretty much owns anything else u can think of

Many people think pistols suck in this game but once enchanted it's the best choice
-If you upgrade any other kind of weapon to the same level it wont be nearly as effective
-Cast speed will never get as fast as hitting with dual pistols
-There is no point to melee weapons unless you like them cause you already spend time running after moobs and even if you don't u still don't kill as fast
-Pistols can hit like a machine gun,they don't use mana or anything,you kill faster than by using skills with them and the faster they hit the faster u get healed by them
-The base damage the weapon has when you find it does not mean anything
Think of it as you trying to kill a bug by crashing a 747 onto it,while fighter jets blow your 747 away before it gets near that bug,that's what a slug'ish weapon is in hack and slash rpg's

stats for ideal equipment req:
40str
130-140dex
102magic
77defense
dump the rest into dex after this(can also add more defense but i just don't care about it)

Skills:
max critical strike
ranged weapons expertise
armor expertise
ember shield
infuse (now this is a reason why alchemist is the best at dual guns)
dual wielding
now this covers about 60 lvls

the best outcome is by maxing block and parry cause i really did not need any skill, i just hit faster than i cast,defensive and offensive spell mastery and remaining points should go into frailty it can be a nice skill while your char is still weak too.
If you don't have proper items id suggest using
ember shock and ice shock even ember phase(it can save your ass,use em for support but if u get these u can't get offensive spell mastery which is useful endgame with elemental overload VI it will add up abit of dmg to your bullet shots to maximize dps,so these skills are not that useful,cause everyone is proud of high dmg and dps in the end)

Spells:

You could use blood skeleton,skeleton warriors,zombies,but they are annoying and not really for this playstyle cause u need to see where ur pointing ur cursor at.
I use haste,elemental protection and elemental overload VI and blood skeleton my pet has skeleton warrior and freeze

Now for the items:

What you should look for is items with a lot of % bonus to critical dmg or ranged dmg bonus% but the later does not give that much of a bonus with this build.
you will get max critical chance if u spend enough time upgrading your pistols
now here are the items i could find till now,ill tell ya its not easy to get them at all but they are prob the best
helm: Epic Valkyrie Helm
gloves: Epic Assassin Gloves
boots: Epic Transmuter Sabotons
shoulder: Epic Dragonscale Gloves
armor: Epic Magnus Complex Surcoat (only set item used)
belt: Epic Dragonscale Sash
rings: Epic Pundee's band
pend: Epic Morlok's Crazed Insignia
I didn't really upgrade my armor much cause i spent everything on weapons and it was worth it + i would not risk breaking these,well i would if i had spares left.

As for weapons first get some low lvl pistols,average attack speed ones are the best u will find that is cheap to upgrade,they need to be very cheap cause then u can use spares and upgrade them till they have over 100% more attack speed,the ones i had were just insane,but i broke em eventually they were well over that.

Now you could stop at this but if u happen to find 2 of these weapons called Epic Stark Fist of Removal...
they have 830dps, 200% bonus to crit dmg each and they look nice,but if u break em and your not a cheater u wont get those options back and its the best weapon in the game i seen since i started playing.
I use these now upgraded just so i crit every hit.
Another alternative is gambler's pepperbox pistols cause they don't require a high lvl but give just 80%crit,still good tough:D.
-The reason for dual wielding pistols is they hit much faster than in other weapon combinations
These items add up to 680% bonus to critical dmg in total and 20% ranged dmg bonus from the helm.

The strategy is simple buff up,point shoot like u got uzi's and moobs die,bosses die,everything dies! except for u cause u heal more dmg than moobs get to do to you.

I don't normally write guides this is my first build guide for a game,if you have questions or suggestions i'm listening:P

[Omegaomni]

A very interesting guide. I like guns but I'm a Battle lore hybrid

[dacckon]

Nice guide!

Is it capable to do in VHHC? What skills should I try to level first?

[hectic1]

Nice guide!

Is it capable to do in VHHC? What skills should I try to level first?

yes and get critical strike at 6,infuse at 5 and dual wielding and make sure u have spare points to max armor expertise and ranged weapons so you don't add more stats than that
but thats just if its your first playtrough and i guess its not so then u can get good enough low lvl pistols,you would have pretty high dmg so then i'd add max armor expertise and ember shield
i didn't include this cause theres no real best way here,just personal preference

[Ice]

what about AOE? I am trying out this build and it kills one mob at a time just fine but when I got 10 coming at me is run time and shoot run and shoot..what are you doing for AOE?

[icup]

what about AOE? I am trying out this build and it kills one mob at a time just fine but when I got 10 coming at me is run time and shoot run and shoot..what are you doing for AOE?

I´m a bit of a noob but don't weapons have that Aoe attack if elemental? And wouldn't a dual wielding crazy fire rate get that at least once per sec.



Looks interesting. A shitload of enchants on pistols and it looks pretty grate. Might try it. Also doe's anyone know max fire speed?

[Alchfanatic]

this guide sure helped me create my most successful character so far... thanks a lot!

what's the magic for? is it just in case that you find some stuff that deals elemental damage? because currently I don't have such stuff so I find dexterity better...

BTW, will socketing deadly chaos gems (+2 crit chance) help even in higher levels? because I'm (level 26) currently steamrolling the levels in the dwarven fortress with 2.5k crits (wielding 2x general ortin's(?) sidearm (both enchanted to about 14% disenchant chance) with two pure-embers for damage; rank 9 infuse, rank 10 critical strikes, rank 7 dual wielding, rank 2 ranged weapon mastery, rank 10 armor expertise and rank 1 ember phase for imba mobility) and making short work of most enemies there... is it OK to skip ember shield until I maxed out my offensive skills?

also, I find my DPS without the pure-embers quite lower, but if ever, should I sacrifice DPS in order to get some life stolen per hit?

thanks a lot!

[shadowhand]

I'm currently working on a alchy inspired by this thread. Couple of notes of people who want to roll a new character:

Having 1 point in Ice Shock is critical for crowd control.
Using Pepperbox and/or Orrin for your pistols works really well.
Knockback is critical to this build! Make sure you have at least 50+ points of knockback across all equipment.
Using Skulls (life steal) in your pistols keeps you from getting too squishy.

General tips, applies to this build, due to the squishiness of having dex at the cost of def:

Stack fire resistance whenever possible. When you hit floor 30, you'll need as much as you can get.
Having equipment with +Chance to Reflect Missile Damage helps when dealing Dark Zealots in later floors.

Personally, I am finding it really hard to get a proper amount of armor, but I think this is mainly due to holding on to lower level equipment for the enchants. Since I plan on retiring this character and reusing my equipment, I am being trying to keep my armor requirements really low. I'm not getting killed in 1 shot, but will die pretty quickly if more than one caster targets me.

I choose not to spec out Infuse and go with Pet Mastery instead. This was a pretty poor choice, and I don't recommend it. Although it helps your pet tank a lot better, choosing Infuse gives you high enough damage that most mobs will die in 1 shot... those that don't get Ice Shock to the face, followed by knock back. You should be able to avoid getting hit by melee 99% of the time. Casters are usually so squishy that one shot will kill them.

Final thought: I'm not really sure how perfectly the 3/2 rule (3 dex and 2 def per level) applies to this build. Starting with 3/2 for the first 15 levels makes sense, but then you may need to switch to 3/1/1 (dex/magic/def) or possibly even 2/2/1 for equipment requirements. My next retirement will let me experiment with this more.

[zyntex]

Hey guys,
I need help with this guide.

I just started with the game and want to use this build.

My character actually looks like this:

Str: 15
Dex: 18
Mag: 15
Def: 07

Critical Strikes: 02
Armor Expertise: 04

I bought two low level pistols at the town.......so how should I continue ?

[zyntex]

So nobody can help me ?

[Merk777]

just be patient...they'll help. I dont know anything about it

[deusex2]

I've decided to try this build and along the way found some really nasty, 2-hand, bad boy, called Ice Dragonne^_^

It does 100-200 ice dmg per shot with slow attack speed. What makes it shine, though, is it's +35% ice damage buff. Basically, it one-shots every simple mob out there and with infuse+elemental overcharge1 it 1-3 shots every boss:-) I'm lvl 12 and I'm critting for 2k damage with it.

Of course, it's merely beginning of the game, but so far, I'd say Ice Dragonne is way better than anything else. I think I'm not going to switch it any time soon...Well, maybe only for the sake of good laugh with Sword of Adam;)

By the way, when you say "upgrade", you mean enchanting process, or are there any transmutation recipes for weapons?

[Merk777]

he means enchanting

[bcpond]

IMO, you over rate the power of gunz. Wands are easly comparable to them and you need magic for many of your abilities to be viable.

[Merk777]

I believe the originator was basing the build upon the very powerful guns with +Crit damage. I think either work honestly, and if you plan to use active attack skills then wands is the better option. if you are just looking to maximize damage and kill stuff with passive/long delay buff skills then the guns do seem to work a little better.

[Spoon]

Can dual-wielding wands be as effective? You won't have to invest a single point in dexterity for weapons in that case and could dump all points in magic, since all wands are elemental.

Might be that wands are slower and less "accurate" so to speak, but be more effective when shift+attacking.
Also, wands provide more alchemist-specific bonuses.
Then again, wands deal less damage than guns and afaik there is no wand with above average attack speed.

Also, as reliant as you are on enchantments and proper guns for efficiency, investing into Treasure Hunter would be the best "5-6th tier" skill. I'd find it better than block and parry, since by that time most mobs that DO get to damage you are ranged elementals - damage sources you cannot block.

As for the stats, it's very instinctive - priority is dexterity(physical damage)> magic(for epic guns which deal additional elemental damage) > defense (equipment, defense) > strength(purely equipment)

Another note - for spells, the Dervish spell can be crazy with its highly increased attack speed. For the pet, Silence is excellent for elemental bosses and casters - those you're a bit squishy against - Elemental Resistance is its defensive alternative.
Another interesting note it Elemental Overload - another wands vs guns argument - it bolsters elemental damage greatly, as short as it is. Another good spell for you when you're higher up. Draining Touch is your "I want more lifesteal" spell.
Considering however that those spells are vastly dependent on spell mastery, i'd go with the lines of something like silence + summon or frost(to keep down enemies) for pet and Dervish + Elemental Protection/Haste(good for rushing through levels)
Thoughts?

Edit: IN the end, despite the build being highly efficient against single-targets, this build is, ultimately, monotonous and thus, boring.