T2 classes

[Rexidan]

I am wondering how competitive necromancer is to T2 classes. I just unlocked all of the T2 heroes and really like playstyle of necromancer, passive, simple with few and simple phases. Possible to do shorter runs (1day) but also effective for long runs.

I dont care much for the druid part of shaman, but kinda feel like I could grow to like Temporalist or Archon. I want to like Heretic, but seems to active with having to click for hallowed clicks. I assume T2 heroes are way to superior to T1 classes since you essentially get two classes in one. Based on my prefered playstyle, which T2 class would be the best fit for me?

[InvalidError]

You don't need to click all that much with Heretic since you need to spend an increasingly long time spamming Chaotic Fervor for excess hallowed clicks once you are past the short exiles phase and the Redeemer weapon consumes all hallowed clicks at once with boosted effectiveness over spam-clicking.

Once you unlock T3 pets, you will end up spending an increasing amount of time farming Hallowed Clicks using Mechanos Apexis to boost Smite before switching to Voidlight Amalgam (it scales with hallowed clicks from Smite, hence the Smite farm) for pre-burst void farming and the burst phase.

Right now, my e910+ exiles consist of about 30min of pre-buildup setup, 72+h of Apexis Smiting/Fervor farming with the occasional void push still using Apexis to keep the Winged Night happy, 10min farming voids before mini-bursts with a lv140-150 Amalgam, source top-off with Chimera, then level Amalgam to 170+, do 2h of farming voids and final bursts before exile. So, my active time is maybe 15mins per 3.5 days excluding time spent harvesting echoes, dusts, doing experiments, etc.

Since Heretic involves a handful of pet swaps in the setup and burst cycles, having a pet XP set is quite handy, though not a luxury you may be able to afford as a first-realmer due to attribute point requirements. This is further complicated by Heretic needing almost completely different equipment sets for evocation farm, incantation boost for the pre-burst snapsohot, profit and void farming too.

[NomiSaltium]

Heretic, Archon and Temporalist can work well for shorter runs. I'd say that Archon is the simplest of these 3 classes and may be the best fit for you, with Temporalist being in 2nd place. I provided a general overview of each of these 3 classes below if it helps with your decision. What InvalidError said is also true.

With Archon, the buildup is essentially split in 3 spellsets and 3 corresponding item sets, followed by a void set and a burst set. It uses a persistent spell that makes it very powerful, and you'll stack it constantly anyway just by using the class. The pet basically stays the same until you can upgrade it to its T3 form.

With Temporalist, the buildup is effectively one spellset and one corresponding item set, followed by a void set, 2 Incantation sets and 1 burst set. However, you'll need to swap one spell for another sometimes, depending on what you're building up between Time skipped (useful for pet experience as well), Ley Overdrive stacking, or getting Void Entities. This class also uses a persistent spell, though it seems to be less reliant on it than Archon.

Getting Void Mana is fairly easy to understand, as it uses Void Radiance and the corresponding item set. The hard part is maximizing Stabilize the Flow without losing too much Void Mana, so if you have quick fingers, that's not so bad. Pet choices are the same for the most part: Pixie for lots of autoclicks (and character experience), Homunculus and its upgraded forms for maximizing all sources instantly, Voidterror for Void Mana and burst until e550+ mysteries, and Mechanos Apexis replaces Voidterror from e550+ mysteries onwards.

With Heretic, the buildup is one spellset and one corresponding item set, followed by a void set, an Incantation item set, a burst set, and 1-2 spell recharge spellsets for extra bursts. There is a specific weapon called the Redeemer that makes you able to spend all Hallowed Clicks in one click, so if you're worried about clicking a lot, this should reassure you.

This class is unique due to having a pseudo-persistent with Performed Hallowed Clicks, which goes up primarily by using Smite. This stat persists across exiles. Pet choices are Archivist for buildup (though it will be replaced by Mechanos Apexis according to InvalidError above), and Voidterror for Void Mana and burst, though it will be replaced by Voidlight Amalgam later on. Some people (including myself) use Greater Chimera for maximizing sources and a portion of the buildup.

[InvalidError]

Originally posted by Nomisabeu:

Some people (including myself) use Greater Chimera for maximizing sources and a portion of the buildup.

Simulacrum is just as good prior to unlocking T3 regarding maxing out sources, always worth using before going into buildup and between burst phases. Chimera is nice for the head-start it gives to charging all spells while doing a mini-burst to buy the first 12k or so of all sources.

Back when I tried Temporalist, I never managed to make a meaningful profit vs what I got from Heretic and that is despite having screwed up Heretic by not doing the incantation snapshot using an incantation focus set before burst while actually doing it on Temporalist. Being slow or having butterfingers isn't very forgiving when everything is running at 30X normal time. I must have re-read the guide a dozen times over the 10 days I tried it and it seems like I never got it right. It could be something like the True Sorcery handicap from trying Temporalist out of the blue at ~e650 instead of committing to it from e300 into a new realm dooming that idea.

[Rexidan]

Thanks for the input! Based on the advice I'll try Archon. Heretic sounds very interesting, but a bit to complex. I'll try it out sometime, but right now I need something simpler.

[InvalidError]

Originally posted by Rexidan:

Thanks for the input! Based on the advice I'll try Archon. Heretic sounds very interesting, but a bit to complex. I'll try it out sometime, but right now I need something simpler.

The biggest simplification point with Archon is the single mandatory pet that does nearly everything. Simplicity has its cost though: based on the "stuck at e950" thread, it does not appear to scale into late-game. Just something to keep in mind for ~e500 later where you may notice progress flattening hard.

[JazzyJ]

IMO Archon scales better into late game than Heretic does, although probably not by much.

[sresk]

Originally posted by InvalidError:

Originally posted by Rexidan:

Thanks for the input! Based on the advice I'll try Archon. Heretic sounds very interesting, but a bit to complex. I'll try it out sometime, but right now I need something simpler.

The biggest simplification point with Archon is the single mandatory pet that does nearly everything. Simplicity has its cost though: based on the "stuck at e950" thread, it does not appear to scale into late-game. Just something to keep in mind for ~e500 later where you may notice progress flattening hard.

Archon scales just fine and I can reach almost a high of maximum mems with archon as I can with shaman. The main thing is that archon can perform really well on very short runs (unlike shaman or tempo which basically needs a minimum of at least 1 day), so I think people get trapped into an expectation of doing 6-12 hour runs, and not realizing that a longer 1-3 day run works quite well also.