Endgame Looting for Fun and Profit

[Vagrant]

So, you've got yourself a decent mage, you've decided what kind of creatures you like, you've done all the castle quests, and you've crawled up the creature tiers until, finally, finally, you've run out of More Creature rituals.

What now?

You get to looting.

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Winning Battles at a Disadvantage

First off, perfect your creature strategy. I'm not going to try to advise you on your offensive strategy - there are a million and one ways to do that. Instead, I'm going to tell you how to not die in response to whatever your opponent does.

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• Get an Effective Tank. You can go about this one of two ways: you can make a Nether out of your favorite tank so that it'll be able to take the supercharged hits coming your way in the deeper floors, or you can use one of the perfect defense monsters - creatures who, combined with a specific legendary enchant, are immune to death by vanilla Attack damage through various methods. I won't spoil these, but if you think, you'll be able to spot them.
  
  
• Get Topaz Paragon or its Enchant. No, I'm not joking. Get it. Your life expectancy without it is problematic.
  
  
• Get Legendaries that Benefit Your Team. There are a lot of legendary enchants out there, and while a lot of them are generally useful, a few are going to be tremendously useful to whatever build you choose. Make yourself one or two starters to help you get through the next bit, then drop some points in Major Sigils and go down past at least floor 3, then fight some Major Sigils. They're a good warmup for what you're facing, and the legendary mat drops will widen your selection. You get your tank before this specifically so the Nethers won't just annihilate your group.
  
  
  
• Optimize Your Scrolls. Spell damage is not going to be efficient where you're going, even if you're a mono-Sorcery build with a spellcaster team (and then the first Nightmare Mummy you face will kill you), but that doesn't mean they're ineffective, and indeed, I highly suggest opening up two or three extra scroll slots. Instead, bring spells that rely on status effects and percentage debuffs: Petrify is an old classic, along with its weaker, quicker brother Mind Tricks. Ghoul's Grip will reliably kill a creature over two or three turns, and if you have a class you use specifically for offense, say . . . Sorcery, then the Purgatory spell or its defense-reducing brethren will have you dealing far more damage to everything. Of course, a Ressurect is imperative, as it is for most of the game in general. Finally, a Farsight scroll from Bynine doesn't go amiss either in an extra slot, to make sure you don't miss hidden chests and such. Once you've picked out your setup, drop some Quills to keep them ready for the long run.
  
  
  
• Polish Your Artifacts. Now that you hopefully have the Legendaries you want, or at least are satisfied with using, drop your legendary on first (so you can restat it later on if you want without losing the legendary), then fill it out according to its user's role. If it's a Tank, give it tons of All Defense and a Mend buff, maybe a chance at Protect or Shell. If it's an attacker, Attack (duh). If it doesn't fit well into either role, fill its slots with status afflictions so it can disable enemies instead of just hopelessly plinking away at them. Lastly, remember that Proficient increases the effectiveness of Attack/Defense/Luck boosts by 50%, so if your artifact focuses on any of those, you should definitely try to have that buff on it.

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Delving

When you start down, you're going to quickly begin amassing Royalty points from leveling up, duties, and other miscellaneous events. Use them to increase your treasure intake! As the loot table improves, your chances of getting Royalty Potions increase, and you can reinvest these in better loot.

First of all, increase Loot Hoarding to at least 10 or 15, as it's the primary booster of what you're going after. Next, increase the Treasure Finding perk to at least 5, so that you have more chances at good loot. Then get to improving your Power Balance; drop several ranks in Bonus first, then start edging up your maximum. Your Balance acts as a multiplier for all your loot and resources, and this is the final step in maximizing your loot intake.

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Final notes include:

Remember to drop points in the Creatures category eventually; you will be swimming in points, and there's a lot to invest in there.

Don't be afraid to put points into Flee Chance; there are enemy parties out there that can screw you no matter what you do. The classic is a Bone Reaper and a Skeleton Mortarsman, the first of which disables your rez abilities and the second of which can obliterate your entire party in one hit. Don't be a hero.

Your main targets you're looking for are Pills, Imbued Orbs, and Demon Dusts.

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It's your oyster now, ladies and gentlemen; get out there and start spelunking.

[janus]

nice intro, where were you 5 days ago :D
you could mention the nightwing gargoyle for 30 exalted emblems.
it greatly reduces the time needed for farming

[Vagrant]

I've mentioned it multiple times before in the Tips and Tricks section and other places on the board. This is endgame content - I assume by now you've learned how to grind effectively.