New player wondering what the build variety is like

[HRYB]

I'm new to ToMe and I'm curious as to what build variety is actually like in this game. I was blown away when I saw the number of classes and skills. But as I am learning to play, it more or less seems like there is only a couple clear cut ways to build your character for each class, especially if you want to win. I like games and especially my roguelikes to allow me to get creative with my builds. Like caves of qud, CDDA, or even the more casual tangledeep. So... What's the variety like??

[IdealPoint]

People will always gravitate to what they think is best.That doesn't mean that other builds aren't viable. Most classes have at least two usable general strategies. If you are doing everything else right, you aren't going to fail because you put a few points into the wrong categories (or even most of your points). What is more important is game knowledge-knowing that when you go to Tempest Peak you want a lot of lightning resist, when you go to dreadfell you need to worry about disease, etc. Build variety, off the top of my head:
Doombringer
-2 handed strength/magic based heavy armor
-2 handed strength/dex light armor
-staff magic focused fire focused
Wyrmic-literally any of the many breath attacks
-2 handed strength/will heavy armor
-mindstars will/cunning
Archer
-bow sniper light armor
-sling agility heavy armor
-sling agility light armor
Marauder
-Krog 2 1 handed antimagic heavy armor
-Krog mindstar light armor
-Halfling light armor heavy focus on poison
Temporal Warden
-Hounds primary
-Bow focused
-Light armor melee focused
Doomed
-Darkness/no darkness
etc. etc. etc.

You can absolutely experiment and find success in TOME in either normal or nightmare, and even to an extent in insane if you know the game well and realize sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. Most of the guides you find are bad and outdated anyways, so try to think logically about what you are encountering and how to deal with it.

Oh, and don't ignore important skills, like armor, and then complain that you are getting one shot. The game is challenging. Don't ignore the tools at your disposal.

[HRYB]

Originally posted by IdealPoint:

People will always gravitate to what they think is best.That doesn't mean that other builds aren't viable. Most classes have at least two usable general strategies. If you are doing everything else right, you aren't going to fail because you put a few points into the wrong categories (or even most of your points). What is more important is game knowledge-knowing that when you go to Tempest Peak you want a lot of lightning resist, when you go to dreadfell you need to worry about disease, etc. Build variety, off the top of my head:
Doombringer
-2 handed strength/magic based heavy armor
-2 handed strength/dex light armor
-staff magic focused fire focused
Wyrmic-literally any of the many breath attacks
-2 handed strength/will heavy armor
-mindstars will/cunning
Archer
-bow sniper light armor
-sling agility heavy armor
-sling agility light armor
Marauder
-Krog 2 1 handed antimagic heavy armor
-Krog mindstar light armor
-Halfling light armor heavy focus on poison
Temporal Warden
-Hounds primary
-Bow focused
-Light armor melee focused
Doomed
-Darkness/no darkness
etc. etc. etc.

You can absolutely experiment and find success in TOME in either normal or nightmare, and even to an extent in insane if you know the game well and realize sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. Most of the guides you find are bad and outdated anyways, so try to think logically about what you are encountering and how to deal with it.

Oh, and don't ignore important skills, like armor, and then complain that you are getting one shot. The game is challenging. Don't ignore the tools at your disposal.

Thank you for the awesome reply. I see, well that's great if it's more so about your knowledge about the game and its mechanics. Thats what made the game Grim Dawn so excellent to me. Nearly ANY BUILD was endgame viable, because it was all about understanding what you needed in order to survive. That was also sort of the case with Tangledeep, although that game was just easy overall... Thanks again! I think youve convinced me well enough to keep sinking my time into this game :)

[ZeroAffex]

I think there is a ton of variety unless your looking at the guides for Insane difficulty or something. This game is way more in-depth than CoQ and Tangledeep in terms of build varieties. There are so many!!! I am working my way through them myself. I started with Berzerker and after nearly 300 hours am working on Doombringer. Plan on doing either Archmage or Demonologist after I beat the game (still havent yet) with my Doombringer xD

TOME is by far the BEST roguelike/rpg I've ever played and I think I've played them all except for maybe 1? ADOM off the top of my head. I'd imagine I'll probably sink a few thousand hours into this game before I die and I am totally happy with that :D lol Love this game!

[Fenix-Venix]

It's friggin BIG. Really.
You can develop and make emphasis on this or that skill tree in same class, and mix it with skill trees from escorts, be antimagic or not, also items have slight impact here too.

Originally posted by IdealPoint:

Wyrmic-literally any of the many breath attacks
-2 handed strength/will heavy armor
-mindstars will/cunning

Breath attacks, 2-handed weapon, mindstars, same but with magic-based skill trees.

Demonologist - 1-hander, or 2-hander if Ogre, swords or staff, utilizing heavily its defenses - then Ghoul Con/Mag, or damage potential then Drem Mag/Dex/Cun.

[mk11]

Also, once you have completed the game once you unlock the Adventurer class which has a 100+ viable builds at Insanity difficulty.

[HRYB]

Thank you all for the comments! I am absolutely loving the game, it's absurdly good. It has the best aspects from some of my favorite arpgs (diablo 2/grim dawn) as well as the best parts of some of my favorite roguelikes. My two favorite genres in one, really! But it also plays more similar to the more tactical turn based crpgs like divinity original sin. It's fantastic, and now that I'm seeing all these comments about it's massive build variety, I am getting even more excited about this game. I have every intention to let this game consume me during this quarantine haha

[ZeroAffex]

Originally posted by RAT:

Thank you all for the comments! I am absolutely loving the game, it's absurdly good. It has the best aspects from some of my favorite arpgs (diablo 2/grim dawn) as well as the best parts of some of my favorite roguelikes. My two favorite genres in one, really! But it also plays more similar to the more tactical turn based crpgs like divinity original sin. It's fantastic, and now that I'm seeing all these comments about it's massive build variety, I am getting even more excited about this game. I have every intention to let this game consume me during this quarantine haha

Hands down my favorite game of all time.. Just wish I realized it sooner! If you asked me a few months ago what my favorite roguelike was, I'd said CoQ. This game took a long time for me to get hooked into (around 80 hours of off and on play). I was convinced CoQ was the best roguelike (it's still my 2nd fav) but after I was able to learn TOME's mechanics and get some deep runs (kept playing the same toon over and over; mastering berzerker) I was able to fully realize, appreciate and become totally enthralled by this game. The lore is amazing! Probably my favorite lore of any game. Weird, vast and deep. Just the way I like it. Add in a diablo style loot system, multitudes of races/classes to choose from, tons of unlocks, random everything, achievements and stat tracking that gets logged forever on the internet. I am in heaven!

I am about 300 hours in and still feel like I am at the tip of the iceberg. I haven't even beat it yet, mainly because up until this last week, I've never used guides or anything, been going about TOME the good o' "get burned and learn". lol No regrets! I freaking love DarkGod and this game. Happy to see others digging it too! Makes my day! :D Like you, am happy as hell to have this during Corvid. So happy I decided to start donating monthly which is fair considering the amount of time and enjoyment I've been getting out of it. I also want to help see continued support/dlc/ect. to keep us happy and gaming for many, many, many years! :D Game is so good it's near criminal. lol

[HRYB]

Originally posted by ZeroAffex:

Originally posted by RAT:

Thank you all for the comments! I am absolutely loving the game, it's absurdly good. It has the best aspects from some of my favorite arpgs (diablo 2/grim dawn) as well as the best parts of some of my favorite roguelikes. My two favorite genres in one, really! But it also plays more similar to the more tactical turn based crpgs like divinity original sin. It's fantastic, and now that I'm seeing all these comments about it's massive build variety, I am getting even more excited about this game. I have every intention to let this game consume me during this quarantine haha

Hands down my favorite game of all time.. Just wish I realized it sooner! If you asked me a few months ago what my favorite roguelike was, I'd said CoQ. This game took a long time for me to get hooked into (around 80 hours of off and on play). I was convinced CoQ was the best roguelike (it's still my 2nd fav) but after I was able to learn TOME's mechanics and get some deep runs (kept playing the same toon over and over; mastering berzerker) I was able to fully realize, appreciate and become totally enthralled by this game. The lore is amazing! Probably my favorite lore of any game. Weird, vast and deep. Just the way I like it. Add in a diablo style loot system, multitudes of races/classes to choose from, tons of unlocks, random everything, achievements and stat tracking that gets logged forever on the internet. I am in heaven!

I am about 300 hours in and still feel like I am at the tip of the iceberg. I haven't even beat it yet, mainly because up until this last week, I've never used guides or anything, been going about TOME the good o' "get burned and learn". lol No regrets! I freaking love DarkGod and this game. Happy to see others digging it too! Makes my day! :D Like you, am happy as hell to have this during Corvid. So happy I decided to start donating monthly which is fair considering the amount of time and enjoyment I've been getting out of it. I also want to help see continued support/dlc/ect. to keep us happy and gaming for many, many, many years! :D Game is so good it's near criminal. lol

Man if you asked me just 3 days ago I would have said my favorite roguelike was Qud! I love the whacky setting of that game. As well as the level of freedom and insane storytelling. But ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ does ToMe scratch nearly every gaming itch of mine! I think similarly, its not as fun if you go into the game knowing everything beforehand from guides, specifically with things relating to character creation :D. Isnt creating your own build that wins the game supposed to be the fun part!?!? But I just always want to make sure a game truly provides you the tools to do so. So many roguelikes offer MANY ways to play but only FEW ways to win I feel. That doesnt seem to be the case with ToMe, obv not for insane though haha.

Im about 20 hours in trying to build a Doombringer. Only after spending my first 15 hours repetitively dying as a rogue... This damn class is so much fun. I bought ToMe years ago and never played it. Took until now to finally get into it. As soon as I realized the potential and depth of this game I went purchased all the DLC as well. Now that I know the true expanse of this game, it truly is a steal for what he is offering it at. I really think im going to end up being a long long time fan of this game! It maybe even may knock Grim Dawn off from being my #1 played game haha.

Also worth noting that judging by all of these friendly and helpful replies, that the ToMe community appears to be awesome as well :D

[HRYB]

3 days ago i had 3 hours in this game... Now I have 23! Safe to say you guys got me hooked

[Fenix-Venix]

Originally posted by RAT:

Thank you all for the comments! I am absolutely loving the game, it's absurdly good.

I have 3.5 K hours in it, and it still good.

[manystarredcloak]

https://te4.org/characters/153177/tome/ec0ff977-44b1-454e-96be-8523eee324fc

Here's a Krog archmage winner. Krog is inherently antimagic that means they cannot cast any spells, while archmage, just the class name implies, all their class talents are spells.

I post the character here just to prove that you cannot build your character wrong.

[Rookie]

Originally posted by manystarredcloak:

https://te4.org/characters/153177/tome/ec0ff977-44b1-454e-96be-8523eee324fc

Here's a Krog archmage winner. Krog is inherently antimagic that means they cannot cast any spells, while archmage, just the class name implies, all their class talents are spells.

I post the character here just to prove that you cannot build your character wrong.

...
Mode Insane Roguelike
...

Wow... I really wonder how many times have you tried before finally winning with this build

[manystarredcloak]

Originally posted by Rookie:

...
Mode Insane Roguelike
...
Wow... I really wonder how many times have you tried before finally winning with this build

This character was not mine.

[Local Jerk]

Originally posted by IdealPoint:

People will always gravitate to what they think is best.That doesn't mean that other builds aren't viable. Most classes have at least two usable general strategies. If you are doing everything else right, you aren't going to fail because you put a few points into the wrong categories (or even most of your points). What is more important is game knowledge-knowing that when you go to Tempest Peak you want a lot of lightning resist, when you go to dreadfell you need to worry about disease, etc. Build variety, off the top of my head:
Doombringer
-2 handed strength/magic based heavy armor
-2 handed strength/dex light armor
-staff magic focused fire focused
Wyrmic-literally any of the many breath attacks
-2 handed strength/will heavy armor
-mindstars will/cunning
Archer
-bow sniper light armor
-sling agility heavy armor
-sling agility light armor
Marauder
-Krog 2 1 handed antimagic heavy armor
-Krog mindstar light armor
-Halfling light armor heavy focus on poison
Temporal Warden
-Hounds primary
-Bow focused
-Light armor melee focused
Doomed
-Darkness/no darkness
etc. etc. etc.

You can absolutely experiment and find success in TOME in either normal or nightmare, and even to an extent in insane if you know the game well and realize sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. Most of the guides you find are bad and outdated anyways, so try to think logically about what you are encountering and how to deal with it.

Oh, and don't ignore important skills, like armor, and then complain that you are getting one shot. The game is challenging. Don't ignore the tools at your disposal.

Why the heck are you using light armor on any class that doesn't get the Mobility tree? There is no correlation between using Dex and light or heavy armor. You only use light armor on classes that have the Mobility tree and the Trained Reactions talent from it. And robes can be used on mage classes, tho they sometimes prefer to use heavy armor as well. And defense scales poorly into mid and especially late game. Dex is used primarily for accuracy, damage with daggers, bows and slings and talents that scale with it. Also pls don't tell him to put talent points into anmy armor tree beyond qualifying for wearing what armor you need. And if you are playing a dex class, you also don't need to put more than one point into combat accuracy. This advice sounds like you are projecting strategies from other games onto TOME. It doesn't work the same.

[IdealPoint]

hmm.

Please read the first thing I said in that post.

As for why I would use light armor on a class without mobility (doombringer)-they get two really good skills that support light armor in wraithform and dismember. Plus you can get precognition from a TW escort for even more magic scaling defense. And they can easily get ethereal form because they have reason to put points into magic, which is just a really good prodigy.

The game is absolutely open to experimentation.

Take a look at my last experiment, a psiblade marauder with dex, will, and cunning all maxed before strength. Very different than the other insane winners in 1.6.
https://te4.org/characters/258912/tome/8c8f6d49-239e-41fb-8b50-025e460d9418

This game supports great build variety, you should experiment a little.