Inscription Guide - Version 1.7.4

Inscriptions, the resource used in Tales of Maj'Eyal that mirrors the use of Potions or Scrolls from other games. The following guide will list the various Inscriptions available for a player to use and what they all entail. Some additional comments are also at the bottom on some strategies in picking Inscriptions for use on ones character as well; along with some notes on those Inscriptions that existed prior to the ones of today.

Introduction

Inscriptions are Tales of Maj'Eyal's version of potions or scrolls. Unlike most other Roguelikes, they are a reusable resource for healing your character or providing utility in a fight. Inscriptions come in primarily two types: Infusions and Runes. With the addition of the Embers of Rage DLC, Steamtech Implants may also be available for use. There are also technically Taints as well, but only one is currently available for use - However, more then one Taint exists, check out the Wierdling Beast next time you meander over to the Sher'Tul Fortress to see some of the other Taints.

The guide is broken down into four sub-sections for the different Inscription types - Infusions, Runes, Unique, and Implants. Implants were introduced with the Embers of Rage DLC and unlike the other sections I need to make a note about the Medical Salves that players can use since they work a lot different from the other inscriptions you can use.

After the Inscription section I include some brief thoughts with building your character in regards to Inscriptions and what you need to plan for. I also have a list of retired Inscriptions that were either removed from the game or upgraded into more powerful Inscriptions that are in the game today.

Note that this guide is mostly intended for newer players on Normal & Nightmare difficulty, as that is primarily the gameplay experience for my games. It is likely on harder difficulties the importance of certain Inscriptions may merit more consideration due to how things scale in the game.

Infusion Inscriptions

Almost all races except the Shalore Elves, Drem, Ogres, and the Undead Races start out with a couple of Infusions when beginning the Tales of Maj'Eyal Campaign - the majority of races being referred to henceforth as the standard races while the above are referred to as the runic races.

Generally, Infusions are very important for less Arcane centred characters; though this doesn't mean that Arcane users won't find some use from using them as well. Undead races can't use Infusions at all so they can just ignore them when playing characters with those races; or if you turn into a Lich as a Necromancer.

Early in game, one will likely find they will be using Infusions primarily, as good Runes to use are difficult to find early on; some of which are very unlikely to appear early in the game. They will retain a lot of their use later and up to the end of the game as well.

Infusions overall come in two flavors - those that restore your health and those that augment your character to make you more survivable.

--Restorative

Restorative Infusions are commonly the most important Inscription type that players will make use on their characters. Their primary use corresponds to restoring the characters health.

Regeneration – 1 Turn Usage Speed. Increases Health Regeneration by X for N Turns.

General Usage: The Regeneration Infusion provides a temporary buff that greatly increases a characters hit points restoration per turn. In contrast to Healing Infusions, the Regeneration Infusion is used to restore a greater deal of health for a character over a long period.

Standard characters will start with a Regeneration Infusion which will restore a portion of the characters hit points gradually turn after turn. The beneficial regeneration effect doesn’t turn off either if you reach full hit points and you can even use it at maximum health; meaning you can use it before beginning a fight where you haven't even lost any health or only having sustained minor damage.

Now, as a note, Regeneration Infusions will display how much total hit points will be restored for the full duration that it will last. Should the beneficial regeneration effect be stripped from your character or should you suffer from status effects like Curse of Death or Insidious Poison, you will likely noticed reduced or no healing effect as a result.

Additionally, the Fungus Category, available to the Wyrmic Class or those who join the Anti-Magic faction, can greatly improve the value of Regeneration Infusions over that which is stated. Those with the Fungus Category can extend the duration that Regeneration Infusions last, thus receiving more healing; also, they can reduce the duration it takes to use them as well.

You’ll likely want to replace your initial Regeneration Infusion with something else as soon as possible. A better Regeneration Infusion could replace it but the Healing Infusion is not a bad substitute. Alternatively to restoring your health you could also use some of the Runes to give yourself a damage shield and/or negation from incoming damage. These other means are likely recommended if you can't really take the hits to begin with.

Healing – Instant Use. Restores X Hit Points immediately and removes one Disease, Wound, and Poison type effects.

General Usage: The Healing Infusions provides an emergency heal that restores a great portion of a characters health immediately. In Contrast to the Regeneration Infusion, Healing Infusions typically heal less but work well when you need that extra hit points in the head of the moment. It may also be used to remove harmful detrimental effects that might hinder health restoration, or just to reduce the effects that need to be removed by other means.

Healing Infusions are now also a starting inscription for standard races as of the current version of the game, although if they are playing a race that starts with the Mana resource then they will swap out this inscription for a Manasurge Rune. They have also been noticeably buffed from past versions of the game.

As a mention with Regeneration Infusions, the Fungus Category not only benefits Regeneration Infusions, but also Healing Infusions as well. The Fungus Category, available to Wyrmics and any character who joins the Anti-Magic faction, can award characters Regeneration effect when they receiving a Healing effect. Alternatively, Archmages and Arcane Blades can make use of a talent in the Aegis category which grants a Damage Shield when healing effects are used on their characters.

The ability to remove harmful detrimental effects that may hinder the amount you get healed though, and the fact that it is instant use Inscription can sometimes encourage bringing a Healing Infusion along in ones adventures. One has to note though that characters with lower hit points are likely going to benefit more from Healing Infusions then those with more health to draw from, as those characters with more of a buffer are usually better suited to a Regeneration Infusion instead.

--Survivability

Being that this is a roguelike, not dying is paramount to playing the game. While Regeneration or Healing Infusion might restore your health, these Infusions helped to prevent you from keeling over when things got tough.

Wild – Instant Use. Removes one random detrimental effect based on what type9s) of detrimental effect(s) is/are listed and provide X Damage Resistance to All Incoming Damage.

General Usage: The Wild Infusion provides a powerful damage negation that reduces incoming damage to the character. In addition to this they also remove a single detrimental effect from whatever source(s) it is stated to cover; this could be a single type (physical, mental, or magical) or a combination of these three (in which case it removes two).

The final Infusion that standard characters will start with, the Wild Infusion has perhaps lost a little bit of its lustre in regards to removing harmful detrimental effects due to Shatter Afflictions and Medical Injectors being introduced, but it still has its uses in reducing incoming damage to the player or for anti-magic characters that can't use Runes.

In many ways the Wild Infusion is one that you'll mostly be using alongside other Inscriptions in the long run as opposed to using it by itself. Players may want to ditch the initial Wild Infusion all together in favor of Shatter Afflictions and Stormshield Runes as they become available. It could still work well along with Regeneration Infusions for those looking to make regen tanks. That said, the damage reduction will always be a consideration.

Movement – Instant Use. Increases Movement Speed for the character by X for one turn; though any other action besides Moving will cancel the effect prematurely. Also prevents Stun, Daze, and Pin Effects for Z turns from being put on the player.

General Usage: Provides enhanced mobility which can let a player reposition their character against enemies. Notably it also helps prevents common effects that hinder or prevent mobility on a character from being applied on them.

Once considered the reigning king as far as Inscriptions go, and possibly still perhaps still the top Inscription in the game; Movement Infusions were so powerful that they actually received a nerf while other Inscriptions received buffs in past updates. The Movement Infusion is still awesomely powerful for its ability to approach enemies, move to a more tactical position, or for retreating from them due to prevention of Stun, Daze, and Pin effects (or for attacking them for that matter), and the ability to move several tiles in a brief moment.

Generally I would recommend only picking up a Movement Infusion of at least 500% or more and with a really low cooldown; having a high movement percentage guarantees you can move 5 tiles or more quickly within one game turn while a low cooldown makes it useful in regards to Stun, Daze, and Pinning prevention.

While Movement Infusions can increase your speed for a turn, enemies can still act while you are moving about with it; there is a reason it states on the Infusion that game turns will pass very slowly – time is still progressing and you aren’t guaranteed not to have an enemy do some action while you move. Additionally, Movement Infusions are worthless for retreating if you get surrounded - if you have nowhere to move, then additional Movement Speed isn't going to help you.

Also of note is that if you have an effect that prevents you from moving, you can’t use the Movement Infusion - sort of a catch 22 since it prevents you from being stopped when active, but really the key thing here to note is that you might want to use the Movement Infusion if you can predict a detrimental effect locking down your movement coming at you.

One last thing to also mention is the fact that Movement Infusions aren’t exactly alone in their effects. Blink Runes can be an alternative to repositioning your character and can give their own set of powerful buffs when you do so. Teleport Runes can notably be certain to make sure you escape your current engagement (at least the current situation) if that is what you plan to use them for. Other talents like a Wyrmic Lightning Speed may also come into play in comparison to Movement Infusions. Playing a Halfling can allow you to make use of their Indomitable talent to prevent Stuns, Dazes, and Pins (while removing them too). Likely though, if your character can use a Movement Infusion then at least one inscription slot should be dedicated to it.

Heroism – Instant Use. While Heroism is ongoing, you will only die once reaching Y health. At the end of the Heroism effect you will have your hit points restored to 1 if they are below 0.

General Usage: Extends a players lifebar by means of preventing them from dying until reaching a certain variable of hit points below 0.

Much like the Movement Infusion, this was an Inscription that got nerfed - specifically it use to boost up your three highest stats, but now it is simply used exclusively to make you less likely to die. That said, the benefits of essentially extending your health bar can't be understated and makes this a powerful Inscription to use when the going gets tough.

Just keep in mind that even though you won't immediately die when the effect ends and your health is below zero, if you have any detrimental effects on you when you are coming back to a single health point it will likely end you unless you have something for healing or buffering your character past that point.

The Heroism use to be the Infusion that every character should run with, but with recent updates one can opt to use other Inscriptions to bolster their characters ability to survive harsh situations. One can likely get away from using it in favor of Shielding or Stormshield Runes; or just a lot of Regeneration Infusions if on a character with a beefy enough constitution and heal mod to just out heal incoming damage. If using the Heroism Infusion you'll want to pair it up with something to protect your hit points after the Heroism Effect ends.

Runic Inscriptions

Those starting with runic race characters will start with Runes in place of the typical starting Infusions. Arcane Classes that use the Mana Resource will start with a Manasurge Rune loaded and available to them - replacing the Healing Infusion for standard races and Blink Rune for the magic races.

Generally, more Arcane centered characters will lean towards Runes over Infusions; but much like with Infusions, anyone can find some use in them - unless they are playing as a Krog which can't use them due to being inherently anti-magic.

Early in the game, players will be hard pressed to find good Runes to make use of on their characters as Infusions will generally be stronger. Later though as better Runes are found they will likely be of more interest.

Since Undead can’t use Infusions, they are limited pretty well to using Runes as a resource. Anti-Magic characters are barred from the use of anything Arcane, which includes Runes. Characters equipping Runes should note that Zigur patrols will become hostile to them if they weren't before, and they will also lose the option of sacrificing Arcane Escorts to Zigur.

Runes run the gauntlet in terms of their use, ranging from those used for offense, to those used for defense, to those that just help you to restore your Mana.

--Relocation

Providing the ability to move your character around, relocation Runes can be useful for escaping tricky engagements or moving past obstacles to a specific destination. Chiefly they instantly move your character from 'A' to 'B' as opposed to other movement option available to the player which manually require you to move tile to tile.

Teleport – 1 Turn to use. Teleports the character randomly within X tiles from the character's location. Always moves the character a minimum of 15 tiles when used.

General usage: Immediately moves a character away from their current situation; most of the time.

An extremely powerful escape option, Teleport Runes can almost without fail ensure that your character will escape your current encounter - bar a situation like the Final Boss Fight where the small area you fight in can very likely lead you to still be within 10 tiles from the Boss you were teleporting away from.

This is probably the first Inscription available as well that can be thought of as a means for escaping encounters with little chance of the immediate enemies being able to retaliate. Unfortunately, one major drawback that comes from Teleport Runes is its random nature - similar to that featured on the old Phase Door Runes. If using the Teleport Rune to escape a dicey situation you may end up landing in another precarious spot.

Notably though, this is a rune that really benefits if you use preparation with it. If you clear out the entirety of the level with a boss on it 'before' confronting said boss, then you can pretty safely use the Teleport Rune to avoid dying to said boss and be pretty safe in where you land. Even without preparation it may still be in your interests to use the Teleportation rune when in an extremely precarious situation that you know will kill your character - such as falling sand in the Sandworm Tunnels or jumping past the initial guard at the of each level for the Orc Prides.

While you may use a Teleport Rune, even late into the game, it may be worth considering the use of another Inscription for relocation purposes. That said, it has niche purpose and swapping out Runes from time to time to use it isn't a bad idea to consider.

Blink – 1 Turn to use. Teleports the character to a tile within X tiles Line of Sight of the character. Also reduces Negative Status Effect duration by Y, increased Defense by Y, and All Resistances by Y, for 3 Turns.

General usage. Used to reposition your character in a fight to a more advantageous position while gaining some suitability while doing so.

Blink runes are one of the starting Runes for runic characters. They are a combination of the old Phase Door and Controlled Phase Door Runes of old. Blink Runes allow a character to jump in and out of combat while providing some nice buffs to a characters defenses.

Unfortunately the Blink Rune requires you to have Line of Sight for where you want to go. In enclosed tight spaces they become less useful since your limited vision will make it difficult for you to use the Rune to its full effect. They can however ignore enemies between you and the destination you pick which gives them a leg up on something like a Movement Infusion when you find yourself boxed in.

One might play around with the Defense and All Resistance Boost you get after using a Blink Rune, but likely you don't need to do this on lower difficulties and 'being' hit is something you want to avoid on the higher difficulties. Unlike with other Inscriptions similar to Blink Runes you won't prevent detrimental effects from landing on your character, just reduce their duration.

If you want a controlled movement from A to B without having to walk there and ignoring what is in the way, the Blink Rune will be helpful in that sort of purpose. However, I consider this to be the weakest Inscription for repositioning so it is likely a good idea to get something else - unless your Undead, then you are sort of stuck with it.

--Offensive

Inscriptions are usually used to buff the player's character, but these Runes take a more offensive approach and debuff enemies - with a little bit of damage thrown in.

Acid Wave – Instant Use. Fires a cone that will do X Acid Damage. When hit by the rune, targets are Disarmed for 4 turns.

General Usage: Hits enemies with a damage type not commonly resisted by many enemies. Enemies hit by the attack are Disarmed, which render Weapon Talents unusable.

The Acid Wave Rune use to be used to remove magical effects in past versions, but has since lost this ability to just be focused on dealing damage to enemies facing the player. The main feature of this Inscription though is the ability to Disarm enemies - thus rendering them unable to use their weapons to hit with or the weapon talents associated with them.

While Acid isn't resisted by many enemies you'll probably have enough talents available from your class talents that you don't need to worry about attacking your enemies; though the rune is instant so free damage is certainly nice. The rune is a bit niche for sure since usually it is the spellcasters rather then the weapon users that will kill you in this game. Likely you don't need to consider this rune in your lineup.

Biting Gale – Instant Use. Fires a cone that will do X Cold Damage. Targets hit by the rune will also have the Wet effect applied to them - lowering their ability to resist Stuns. After the initial Wet effect is applied, the talent also has a chance to Freeze the target on top of the Wet effect for 4 turns.

General Usage: Early on the Rune is used to lock down enemies briefly. Later on it is used to apply a Wet effect on enemies, making them more susceptible to Stun/Freeze type effects. Additionally does X Cold Damage to them.

Biting Gale Runes were much like Acid Wave Runes in that they would remove a detrimental effect, that being mental effects, in earlier versions of the game. Much like the other Rune they also inflict damage to enemies - though it's Cold Damage which is often resisted more. Much like with Acid Wave though, the main feature here was the additional effect it had where it would apply a Wet status to enemies and then attempt to Freeze them.

In comparison to the Acid Wave Rune, the Biting Gale Rune is a more early game loaded as it was useful when enemies won't immediately break out of the ice block you put them in. Later in the game they could warrant a look at if the character was dumping out lots of Stun or Freeze style affects on enemies since the Wet effect would open up enemies that might have been somewhat resistant to it; though I would recommend against using them all the same.

--Tactical

Tactical Runes generally provide some tactical edge to the player by changing their characters properties in one way or another.

Manasurge – Instant Use. Increases Mana Regeneration by X for N Turns. Replenishes Y Mana Immediately. Increases Mana Regeneration by 0.5 while resting.

General Usage: As a players Mana runs low, the Manasurge Rune can be used to give a boost to the Mana Resource with some temporary Mana regeneration following a bit after. For characters without natural Mana regeneration, the Rune provides a passive ability to regenerate Mana.

Arcane classes who start with the Mana Resource will start with a Manasurge Rune available to them at the start of play; replacing Healing Infusions on standard races and Blink Runes on the runic ones. A unique sort of rune that replenish a resource, Manasurge Runes are useful by spellcasters to restore their Mana Resource.

Notably, the main use of the Manasurge Rune is to quickly replenish your Mana. This can be just to restore mana where you heavily used it due to talents, but also in instances where your character suffers a Mana Clash; Mana Clash being an effect that directly attacks your Mana (and other Arcane Resources). Other enemy effects might also cut into your mana reserves.

In many ways the Manasurge Rune use is somewhat restricted only to Alchemists, Archmage, Necromancers, Arcane Blades, and Shadowblades; as those are the only classes that naturally make use of Mana. However, technically any character that gets a Mana bar can make use a Manasurge Rune to replenish their Mana.

It is worth noting that you don't necessarily need to use a Manasurge Rune for the above mentioned classes, but that certainly isn't recommended. For other characters you can promptly just ignore the Rune as this isn't your focus even if you can use Mana.

Ethereal – Instant Use. Become ethereal for 5 turns. While ethereal yours damage is reduced by 50% and you gain X% All Resistance, Y% Move Speed, and become invisible with Z Power.

General Usage: Makes you harder to hit and damage while giving you increased movement; but at a cost of halving your damage output.

It is kind of hard to judge what the Ethereal Rune's purpose is for as this is sort of a mix of a Defensive Rune and a Relocation Rune, but not with enough benefit to be good in either role. Ultimately the only real thing that can be said about the Rune is that you will be using this when you aren't planning to attack your foes with damaging attacks.

Chiefly this is likely most useful for allowing you to tactical reposition in combat by giving you the ability to move around enemies while they flail about trying to hit you to no avail - or perhaps to give you the breathing room needed to debuff your on enemies or buffs on yourself.

Honestly to me the Ethereal Rune feels like one that was carried over from past versions of the gamem but not necessarily given a clear or distinct purpose for how players might go about using it. As it is right now I wouldn't recommend using it when playing the game; unless it gets a buff and I haven't updated the guide since the version this guide is pinned too.

--Defensive

Runes that are geared to be more Defensive in nature, these Runes increase a players ability to survive by absorbing or reducing attacks against them.

Shielding – Instant Use. Places a Damage Shield that will absorb up to X Damage before collapsing. The Damage shield will last N Turns or up to the maximum damage the Damage Shield can absorb.

General Usage: Prevents damage from effecting the player until the Damage Shield put up by a Shielding Rune expires or absorbs up to its specified amount.

The final starting Rune for the runic races; Shielding Runes are a powerful defensive option early in the game. They place a Damage Shield buff over a characters hit points, resulting in damage going to the Damage Shield instead of the players hit points. It can be used at the start of the fight or before a player suffers a big damage spike to survive in an engagement.

In comparison to other defensive options, the only real shortcoming for Shielding Runes is that they don't restore any lost hit points suffered nor really help you out that much when receiving massive incoming damage. Additionally, some special utilities technically exist for the purpose of bypassing or shattering Damage Shields - though notably this likely won't come up in a typical playthrough where one uses a Shielding Rune.

One also has to understand a good time to make use of Shielding Runes as well - knowing how to get the most damage absorbed by the shield before it collapses or putting it off to rely on other defenses. As a note, much like how the Fungus category can improve Healing and Regeneration Infusions, there is a category which improves Shielding Runes. The Aegis Category, available to the Arcane Blade and Archmage Class can be used both to improve the value found from Shielding Runes and also recharge current ones in use.

Magic races start with a fairly decent but mediocre Shielding Rune. Shalore Elves and Ogres can likely replace it with a Regeneration or Healing Infusions if they so choose, but Undead races will definitely want to upgrade their Shielding Rune with a better one; specifically one that scales with a stat they are leveling up.

The Shielding Rune couples well with Regeneration Infusions or Heroism Infusions to absorb damage where the character is particular fragile, or with the Heroism Infusion to give a big buffer to ones health when needed. Later in the game it might be advisable to check out some of the other defensive runes you might be able to acquire, but usually the Shielding Rune will remain useful throughout the game.

Stormshield – Instant Use. Places a protective storm around you for 4 turns. The storm will protect you from damage over a value over X up to Y times.

General Usage: Prevents all damage from an attack if it is above X's threshold for the duration of the buff or until the protective storm absorbs Y hits.

A rather godly little Inscription, Stormshields complete negate damage over a certain amount as opposed to up to a specific value like the Shielding Rune does. This means that when you get attacked you will be taking no damage and instead you will lose a charge from your Stormshield runes effect.

In many ways the Stormshield stops you from dying, but one has to be careful if they take multiple instances of damage from an attack - talents like Flurry will shred through a Stormshield and leave the player open to follow up attacks, trash mobs might rip through it if you aren't careful, and it can always be stripped.

Early on you'll like benefit more from a Shielding Rune, Regeneration Infusion, or even a Healing Infusion as they will protect or heal you for more cumulative damage then the enemies can dish out; meaning there is little need for the Stormshield. Later on in the game when enemies are inflicting hundreds of damagem the Stormshield will easy provide more protection and be a more desirable Inscription to have on your inscription roster.

Shatter Afflictions – Instant Use. Cleanses 1 random detrimental physical, 1 random detrimental, and 1 random detrimental magical effects from the character; along with all cross-tier effects afflicting the character. You will gain X% Damage Shield for each effect cleared this way, not counting cross-tier effects. When you only remove cross-tier effects from the character you gain no shield and your rune goes on a 75% reduced cooldown.

General Usage: A dedicated all purpose debuff cleanser that has the added bonus of giving you some shielding on the side.

Another starting rune for runic characters, Shatter Afflictions should be used for any character that can inscribe it. Detrimental effects can ruin your run; either being what ends you specifically or opening you up to following actions by enemies that will. Having this rune allows you to get rid of such problems occurring with the added bonus of giving you a damage shield on top.

Likely you want to aim for a rune with as low a cooldown as possible to maximize its use in cleansing you of unwanted debuffs on your character, over those that might have a higher cooldown and grant you more shielding; use your other inscriptions for defense over this one. Getting one with a primary stat is less needed too since it doesn't effect debuff removal.

In comparison to other inscriptions there is really little contest in the realm of removing harmful effects. Many might help reduces the time such effects will be active on you, Movement Infusions will prevent Stuns, Dazes, and Pins from landing, and the Wild Infusion (the closest equivalent) only ever removes one debuff from whatever is listed for them. It really is a must have rune for adventuring; unless you can get your immunities so high that this is no longer and issue.

Artefact Inscriptions

Some Inscriptions can only appear once per game. Much like how weapons and armor and all that can have artefacts, these are much the same in being Unique Inscriptions.

Artefact Inscriptions can be a special reward, given to a player as part of the completion of a quest and not obtained by any other means. Other's may be dropped, with a high chance of being generated from certain elements, or even appear in stores to be bought; but use care in inscribing them as replacing them will render them unavailable to appear again in a run.

--Rewarded

Upon completing the last Elixir for one of the Alchemists, you may get an Inscription as a reward from a couple of them - a Wild Growth Infusion from Agrimley or a Taint of Purging from Ungrol. Clearing the Temporal Rift will result in the Rune of the Rift being rewarded to the player. Defeating Urkis as part of the Storming the city quest, with the help of Angolwen and returning to Linaniil, will reward you the Rune of Dissipation.

Wild Growth Infusion – Instant Use. Pin Enemies within 5 tiles from your character and deal X Physical and Nature damage per turn for 5 turns. Increases Armor by 50 and Armor Hardiness by 30. Effects scale with Willpower.

General Usage: Disable movement of enemies near the character. Also provides increases Armor and Armor Hardiness which will negate physical damage attacks made against the player.

An interesting inscription as it is an infusion that can be used for offense (as opposed to a rune), Wild Growth is an intriguing option to help defend the character by means of locking enemies down while the player's character can freely move around and/or blast them from afar. You pick up this Infusion from Agrimley if you help him out making all his potions for the Brotherhood of Alchemists.

This is an odd Inscription which is sort of hard to make use of effectively for any given character. It sort of gravitates its use towards characters that like to be close to the action as it has a fairly limited range centred around the caster, and the increased Armor and Armor Hardiness will help you when you get hit in melee. The Pin can be useful on those characters looking to keep enemies out of direct melee range too.

Most likely this Inscription shouldn't replace others you might pick up, unless you have a spare slot and don't have anything you feel you need to fill it with. It is unquestionably going to be capable of letting you reduce a lot of damage where Armor and Armor Hardiness comes into play; though likely such encounters aren't what you need Inscriptions for. You likely don't need to worry about pinning enemies too much so this is probably worth skipping.

Purging Taint - 1 Turn to use, Activate the Taint for X turns, purging 1 physical detrimental effect each turn and increase the duration of Purging Taint by 1 when a physical detrimental effect is purged.

Similar in scope to Spine of the World - except you are using an Inscription spot instead of a Prodigy one. Purging Taint will not necessarily make you immune to the effects of physical effects, but it will alleviate them for you quite a bit.

Purging Taint comes with a 15 turn cooldown and takes a turn to setup, but it can be up for quite a bit if you have an onslaught of physical effects hitting you. Of course, you have to know when you are at risk of said effects and you probably don't want to be wasting turns with removing harmful effects.

You likely would be better off with a Shatter Afflictions Rune, a Wild Physical, or a Frost Salve with Medical Injectors; since those are instant use and can be useful for removing effects besides physical detrimental effects (ignoring Wild's). You'll could also get good immunity to physical detrimental effects too which is another strike against it. That said if you are in a situation where you are receiving physical detrimental effects one after the other it could shine a bit.

Rune of the Rift – 1 Turn to use. Inflicts 150 + Willpower*4) Temporal Damage on a targeted enemy. If the target survives, it will be sent 4 turns into the future. Reduces Paradox by 25 (if you have any to reduce).

General Usage: Removes an enemy from a fight for 4 turns. Additionally can be used to cause damage to an enemy. Also used to reduce Paradox on players using the Paradox Resource.

A very interesting Rune that does an uncommonly resisted damage type and will remove a target temporarily from a fight if it survives the first strike. This was once a fairly weak Rune as you had to make a check against an enemies Spell Saves for it to work, but this is no longer the case. Found as a reward upon entering the Temporal Portal in Daikaira and surviving the Temporal Rift.

Users can potentially make use of this Rune to throw a tougher enemy into the future to deal with later, while dealing with remaining enemies in the here and now. The Rune is also very useful for reducing Paradox if playing on a Chronomancer class character. The Rune can critical too leading to some laughably powerful hits that will usually not be reduced by a targets resistance.

This is arguably a good Rune to use not only in the early game but also after making your way over to Var'Eyal. Ultimately though as the game drags on you'll find that a 4 turn reprieve isn't really that much time to deal with enemies. Unlike Acid Wave or Biting Gale this Rune isn't instant so there is that too.

Rune of Dissipation 1 Turn to use. Select an enemy target to remove 8 beneficial magical effects or select yourself to remove 8 detrimental magical effects. Fixed range of 10, cooldown of 18.

General Usage: Usually you won't have up to 8 detrimental magical effects so this will likely cleanse you of all of them. Can also be used on enemies with annoying sustains and the like.

Tthe Rune of Dissipation will make all those dangerous diseases or bothersome curses afflicting your character go away. You can also use it on enemies that feature a lot of magical sustains like Archmages to take out a lot of their oomph or to quickly end Fearscape from a Corrupter. The Rune is received from Linaniil after you defeat Urkis in Tempest Peak.

Where this sort of Rune shines is when you come up against something like a Worm that Walks, an enemy that hits you with Curse of Death, or on enemies like Elder Vampires and Vampire Lords that have a lot of annoying magical sustains. Using the Rune to either cleanse yourself of the annoying effects they put on you or knock out the magical buffs of the enemy.

It is sort of a head scratcher for whether you should use the Rune of Dissipation upon receiving it or not. Having one or two Shatter Afflictions is usually enough for any detrimental magical effects you might be suffering early on, and they would give the additional benefit of clearing another physical and mental effect from you too. You might use it though if you have prior game knowledge of what is up ahead and figure it might be worth using for certain dungeons in the game - like Dreadfell; else it might be worthwhile to save it until you get to the Final Bosses of the game.

--Dropped

Some of the Unique Inscriptions aren't found as a specific quest reward, but a typical drop in game. The Reflection Rune can drop from a unique troll enemy known as the Forest Troll Hedge-Wizard at 50% chance in a run where he is found. However, these Inscriptions can be found as just regular normal drops or even generate in stores for the player to buy in a run of the game - The Primal Infusion for example sometimes spawns in Zigur's Infusion Shop.

Primal – Instant Use. Heal for X% of all incoming damage to your character. Reduce the duration of a random detrimental effect by Y each turn for 4 turns. Heal Affinity and duration of random detrimental effect reduction scale with Willpower.

General Usage: Provides Damage Affinity which causes attacks to partially heal the player with some of the damage inflicted. Use is generally paired up with other Inscriptions or Talents the player may make use of on their character. Also used to reduce the duration of debuffs on the character.

The Primal Infusion is an evolved Wild Infusion that covers all detrimental effect types and gives a Damage Affinity instead of reducing damage. This is potentially what will be the first randart Inscription that will appear for players as it can randomly appear in stores or just as a drop from enemies.

Unfortunately as far as reducing detrimental effects go, the Primal Infusion suffers from being unable to focus on any specific type of detrimental effect - which means it can't effectively be relied on to remove debuffs, unless you are only afflicted by one at any given moment. The Damage Affinity is nice as attacks will partially heal you for a small duration, which means it can couple up with a regular Wild Infusion and not replace its damage reduction effect; but by itself is notably quite weak.

Generally I would suggest against using the Primal Infusion as the regular Wild will usually reduce incoming damage more then what you heal back with it - let alone what other inscriptions might also be able to do.

Rune of Reflection – Instant Use. Places a Damage Shield that will absorb up to X Damage before collapsing. The Damage shield will last N Turns or up to the maximum damage the Damage Shield can absorb. Any Damage inflicted on the shield will be reflected back to an enemy as Damage. Damage Absorbed scales with Magic.

General Usage: Prevents damage from effecting the player until the Damage Shield put up by a Shielding Rune expires or absorbs up to its specified amount. Additionally used to damage enemies by ways of their own attacks damaging themselves.

Effectively, the Rune of Reflection is an upgraded Shielding Rune that will cause retaliation damage against enemies that damage your character. Those training the Magic stat can push the value absorbed and reflected even higher; although if the Rune is found early enough it will certainly be beneficial to even those characters not training their Magic stat.

Runes of Reflection act the same as regular Shielding Runes for purposes of use with the Aegis Category on Arcane Blades and Archmages. The damage the rune deals is also untyped, so if an enemy with 100% Lightning Resistance makes a Lightning attack that hits your character with Rune of Reflection on, they will take 100% of the damage they dealt to you.

If the players character is training their Magic stat and is interested in using Shielding Runes, the Reflection Shield Rune will likely outclass any you plan to use or find in the game. That said it will only negate damage up to a certain amount and will block you from using other Shielding Effects until all of its strength is depleted; though that is easily remedied by using other inscription types.

Mirror-Image Rune – 1 Turn to use. Create up to 3 images of yourself that taunt nearby enemies. Only one image can be created per enemy in radius 10 with the first being created near the closest enemy. Images inherit your life, resistance, armor, defense, and armor hardiness.

General Usage: Create between 1 to 3 distractions that draw enemies away from you.

This is a rather interesting defensive Rune that will take some heat off your character; provided that the mirror images successfully taunt enemies that would have attacked you, those enemies aren't using Area of Effect abilities that will still likely hit you, and the images themselves don't immediately die to whatever it is you are up against.

If you haven't read between the lines what I'm saying above: this can be a very hit and miss Rune. Sometimes it works great and it will give you a little breathing room for a few turns. Sometimes it does squat because the enemies will still hit you; or they will tear through the Mirror Image(s) so fast that you don't really get much benefit from them.

This isn't to say that you can't get good use out of the Mirror-Image Rune; if multiple enemies are abound and they aren't able to down the Mirror Image(s) fast enough then you can likely get a few turns to do what you will against enemies - or potentially avoid nasty effects like Inner Demons being applied to you and the like. You can also drop it on your Golem or Worm That Works which can be mildly amusing too.

Prismatic Rune - 1 Turn to use. Activate the rune to create a shield for 6 turns blocking several instances of damage from 3-5 of the following types: Fire, Lightning, Cold, Acid, Mind, Arcane, Blight, Nature, Temporal, Light, Darkness; and Physical. Wards granted for Physical damage are between 2-4, Wards for other damage types are 3-5.

General Usage: Grant several different stormshield barriers for Physical Damage and a few other effects.

Similar to the Stormshield Rune, the Prismatic Rune will defend the player against instances of damage a number of times; as opposed to blocking a value of damage up to a certain amount. Unlike the Stormshield Rune, the Prismatic Rune does this for specific damage types; one of which will always be physical.

You'll immediately notice that the Prismatic Rune lacks the minimum damage threshold that prevents minor damage from chewing through barriers. You'll also notice that the number of damage prevention for each damage type and the damage types outside of Physical will also be random each time you play through the game.

A lot of the reason to use the Prismatic Rune will really depend on what your damage resistances are like and the amount of incoming damage your character is taking from enemies. If you are able to negate a lot of incoming damage types, then you might want to opt for the Stormshield since its minimum threshold will prevent nuisance damage from being an issue. If your resistance are low then this likely doesn't matter. Of course, it also matters what the Prismatic Rune will block - you likely don't need it blocking common damage types anyway.

EoR: Steamtech Inscriptions

With the inclusion of the Embers of Rage DLC and the Orc Campaign came Steamtech Inscriptions called Implants. Usable by both Undead races, Antimagic characters, and immediately employed by Tinker classes; these are perhaps the strongest inscriptions in game. They come in two Implant flavors called Steam Generator Implants and Medical Injection Implants.

If one can perhaps shed a few generic points it might be worth picking up Steamtech/Chemisty category and dropping points into Therapeutics. With that skill you can create Medical Salves for use with a Medical Injection Implant.

Make a note that the Steamtech Implants are only available to those who own the Embers of Rage DLC. If playing as a Tinker class then the character will start with a couple of Medical Injection Impants and one Steam Generator Implant; in place of other inscriptions you might otherwise start with.

There exists only two Implants at this time, they are described in the following section. However, the Medical Injector is very special in that it allows the use of crafted Medical Salves - explained in the follow section after Steamtech Implants.

--Steamtech Implants

Steam Generator – 1 Turn Usage Speed. Increases Steam Regeneration by X permanently. Replenishes Y Steam Immediately.

General Usage: On Tinker Classes, Steam Generator Implants allow you to replenish your Steam Resource so you can keep using your Steamtech Talents. Without Steam Generator Implants, you have no way of regaining any Steam - thus these are extremely important for your Steam Weaponry. They can be used to provide a burst replenishment to the Steam resource similar to Manasurge Runes, but also permanently restore a fixed amount of the Steam resource per turn as well.

If desired, one can inscribe two Steam Generator Implants to their character to increase their Steam resource replenishment per turn. This can be important for Steamtech Sustain Talents that draw heavily from the Steam Resource or for those players who make heavy use of Steamtech Talents that require the Steam resource.

If one isn't using Steamtech Talents then the Steam Generator Implants are of no use and can be ignored.

Medical Injector – Allows use of therapeutics with X% efficiency and cooldown mod of Y%.

General Usage: Medical Injector Implants allow the player to use Medical Salves on their characters. Better Medical Injector Implants will allow for the player to gain better effects from their Medical Salves and allow for them to cooldown faster. Better Medical Salves will also produce better effects.

If one finds themselves with access to Steamtech/Chemistry and can spare a few generic talent points for Therapeutics, one can use their Tinker ability to create Medical Salves. These work with the Medical Injectors to give you a choice of effects to use; making for a very versatile Inscription!

Need to heal up a little? You can use a Medical Injection Implant to quickly replenish your hitpoints with a Healing Salve. Got hit with a Physical Detrimental Effect? You can use that same Medical Injection Implant to remove it with a Frost Salve - and gain a Cold, Darkness, and Nature Affinity on top of it.

One can't understate just how powerful Medical Injector Implants are when you have higher tier Medical Salves to use. Medical Salves of Frost, Water, and Fiery at Tier 1 or 2 will remove a single detrimental effect of physical, mental, or magic (based on which salve is being used); but will remove 'two' detrimental effects at Tier 3! Tier 5 Medical Salves push this further with a total of three detrimental effects being removed.

Due to how diverse Medical Salves are, they are explained in the follow sections. The only real downside is that you 'NEED' the Therapeutics to craft the Medical Salves that Medical Injector Implants use. Without Medical Salves, Medical Injector Implants are useless and can also be ignored.

--Medical Salves

Medical Salves must be crafted via the Create Tinker skill. Too craft Medical Salves you need to invest the needed generic points in Therapeutics along with the required ingredients and herbs for the corresponding Medical Salve tier level you are trying to create. Higher tier Medical Salves will require higher tier herbs to produce. The Therapeutics Talent can be found within the Steamtech/Chemisty category and can be acquired from Tinker Shops.

Depending on the Medical Salve in question, some Medical Salves aren't available at lower tier levels and can only start to be crafted at tier 2 or tier 3. The Unstoppable Force Salve is also constructed from Frost, Fiery, and Water Salves - all of the same tier.

The effectiveness of using Medical Salves is highly dependent on the Medical Injector used. Using a Medical Salve with a Medical injector with a high efficiency will result in much greater benefits from the Medical Salves. Additionally, using a Medical Injector with a low cooldown modifier will result in the Medical Salves coming off cooldown faster.

As a note, one can also make use of a special talent from the Psyshot class called Mind Injection. Inside the Steamtech/Thoughts of Iron category, this capstone talent will allow Psyshot characters to employ and additional Medical Salve for there use.

In total, one can find six different Medical Salves for use with Medical Injectors. I categorize the Medical Salves into two general sections that follow after this one - Status Cure and Life Management.

----Status Cure

The Status Cure Medical Salves correspond to those Medical Salves that remove detrimental effects from your character while also giving you an Aura that grants you a temporary Damage Affinity to certain damage types coming against - healing you a bit in relation to the damage you will receive.

For the purpose of this section, 'X' is used to represent Medical Injector Efficiency, 'Y' is used to represent Medical Injector Cooldown Modifier, and 'N' is used to represent Medical Salve Tier.

Frost Salve – Instant Usage Speed. Removes (1 + 1/2 * (N-1) Detrimental Physical Effects. Grants Frost Aura that gives X*(A*N) Cold, Darkness, and Nature Affinity. Puts Medical Injector on Cooldown for Y*25 turns.

General Usage: Use it to remove detrimental physical effects from your character. Frost Salves of tier 3 and 4 will remove two detrimental physical effects as opposed to just 1, while tier 5 Frost Salves will remove up to three detrimental physical effects. Also gives Frost Aura which gives affinity to Cold, Darkness, and Nature; allowing for some corresponding incoming damage to be converted to health for the player.

Along with Healing Salves, Tinker Classes will start with Frost Salves; but they begin rather underpowered early on and feature a long cooldown after use. It won't be until tier 3 Frost Salve come around that this will change when you can remove more then one physical detrimental effect; although one may rather opt for a Shatter Afflictions Rune if available.

The Frost Salve has one distinct advantage over other status clearing Inscriptions in that it can remove multiple physical detrimental effects from a character; as opposed to a single one with Wild Infusions or Shatter Afflictions. This can mean removing that physical detrimental effect you really want gone. You might not care too much about Frost Salves though if your Immunities against such ailments are high or when popping a Movement Infusion to prevent pinning effects.

Water Salve – Instant Usage Speed. Removes (1 + 1/2 * (N-1) Detrimental Mental Effects. Grants a Water Aura that gives X*(A*N) Blight, Mind, and Acid Affinity. Puts Medical Injector on Cooldown for Y*25 turns.

General Usage: Use it to remove detrimental mental effects from your character. Water Salves of tier 3 and 4 will remove two detrimental mental effects as opposed to just one, while tier 5 Water Salves will remove up to three detrimental physical effects. Also gives Water Aura which gives affinity to Blight, Mind, and Acid Affinity; allowing for some corresponding incoming damage to be converted to health for the player.

Much like Frost Salves, Water Salves will also seem initially weak for use due to the cooldown of 25 turns and only removing one detrimental mental effect. However, just like Frost Salves, the Water Salves dominance will begin to show as you get it to tier 3 and eventually tier 5 when they can remove more then one status effect. They likely won't be used much though - outside of that Rare enemy you might encounter from time to time.

In the same vein of thought as the Frost Salves, Water Salves will have that distinct advantage of being able to clear that 'one' mental effect on your character you really want gone. Unlike with Frost Salves you likely aren't as focused on raising your Mental Immunities and you likely don't have the same method of waving away such ailments in the first place; having a Water Salve is helpful in those instances.

Fiery Salve – Instant Usage Speed. Removes (1 + 1/2 * (N-1) Detrimental Magical Effects. Grants a Fiery Aura that gives X*(A*N) Fire, Light, and Lightning Affinity. Puts Medical Injector on Cooldown for Y*25 turns.

General Usage: Use it to remove detrimental magical effects from your character. Fiery Salves of tier 3 and 4 will remove two detrimental magical effects as opposed to just one, while tier 5 Fiery Salves will remove up to three detrimental magical effects. Also gives Fiery Aura which gives affinity to Fire, Light, and Lightning Affinity; allowing for some corresponding incoming damage to be converted to health for the player.

Pretty well you can probably guess what I'm going to say here: Weaker early on, gets better later. However, there is no denying that magical detrimental effects can really mess up your character; specifically because there usually isn't any Immunities that can help you out against them! What's more it is likely that you'll be running into magical detrimental effects that can ruin your day quite frequently - especially in the Age of Ascendancy Campaign.

Something to note is that unlike the Frost or Water Salves, that Fiery Aura you get from using the Fiery Salve might actually be a bit more useful when wandering around in the Orc Campaign - since, you know, 'Sun Paladins and Anorithils' are running amok and like to spew a lot of Fire and Light Damage; usually in quite high volumes. The little Halfling Pyromancers get a nod too. Even in the Age of Ascendancy it is likely quite useful against the likes of Urkis and the throngs of Lightning Elementals you fight early on.

----Life Management

The Life Management Medical Salves correspond to those Medical Salves that deal with maximizing the use of your hit points in combat - through restoring lost hit points, reducing hit points lost in combat, or giving you a larger hit point buffer. The Unstoppable Force Salve technically also falls in here - although it is more to do with buffing the players modifiers.

For the purpose of this section, 'X' is used to represent Medical Injector Efficiency, 'Y' is used to represent Medical Injector Cooldown Modifier, and 'N' is used to represent Medical Salve Tier.

Healing Salve – 1 Turn Usage Speed. Used to heal X*(A*N) lost hit points. Puts Medical Injector on Cooldown for Y*15 turns.

General Usage: You use it to heal lost hitpoints.

Tinker Classes will start with a Tier 1 Healing Salve for use on their characters. While Healing Salves aren't generally as strong as Healing and Regeneration Infusions since they aren't instant or heal for nearly as much, one thing to say about the Tier 1 Healing Salve is that it is stronger then the Healing and Regeneration Infusions other Races initial start with.

Likely not the greatest use for your Medical Injector Implant, a Healing Salve is generally something you should only use if you don't have another means of protecting your hit points handy or because there is some mitigating problem to worry about (like Curse of Death). Use Shielding Runes, Regeneration, Healing Infusions, and what not first since you'll want to use your Medical Injectors for other purposes.

Undead characters can get a lot of use out of the Healing Salve since they sort of lack the ability to restore their hitpoints through Infusions. Outside of the Undead though, the only good reason you might be using a Healing Salve is because you ran out of other Inscriptions to use; unless there is little reason to be using your Medical Injectors for other salves.

Pain Suppressor Salve –Instant Usage Speed. Allows you to fight up to -X*(A*N) hit points and reduces all damage by X(A*N)% for (4 + 1/2 * (N-1) turns. Puts Medical Injector on Cooldown for Y*10 turns.

General Usage: Use it to help reduce incoming damage and allow you to survive harsher situations where you bound to take a lot of health loss.

I can't say I think much of the Pain Suppressor Salve. It is essentially a Heroism and Wild Infusion rolled into one with a rapid cooldown. It doesn't last too long either so you really have to know if the damage you'll be sustaining means it is worth using it or if you would be better off keeping your medical injector off cooldown for something else.

This isn't to say it isn't without its use if you KNOW that an enemy is going to flatten you with loads of damage or if you are just surrounded by enemies; the final boss of the Embers of Rage campaign is likely a good example.

Again, Undead characters can get use out of Pain Suppressor Salves since they can't use Wild or Heroism Infusions. Other characters might like it when the going gets tough and they just want to buy time while a fight progresses.

Unstoppable Force Salve – Instant Usage Speed. Increases Saves by X*(A*N) and sets Healing Modifier to 250% for 5 turns. Puts Medical Injector on Cooldown for N+1 turns.

General Usage: Use it when you need to restore a massive amount of lost hitpoints or when you come up against harsh save checks.

I won't say that this is a Salve without a use, but it is a Salve that is with very niche use. Much like the Pain Suppressor Salve above, this is one that will require you to have some forethought on when and how to use it. You'll likely need to know when you are in a tight position and can benefit from that extra healing modifier or increase to your saves.

Likely this is more of a Salve that you'll make for other Inscriptions you use as you'll get more healing when you use it before popping a healing Inscription. That said though the duration of Unstoppable Force Salve leaves a bit to be desired and even with the substantial boost to saves you'll still likely be having tonnes of effects inflicted on you.

Character Inscription Setup

Due to the variety of Inscriptions present in the game, it can be rather hard to draw up any real suggestion on what sort of setup a player should aim for on their character. Additionally, the use of Inscriptions can vary in value between different classes and even races.

Where possible though, there are some considerations that can be made to form some guidelines when picking Inscriptions for use on their character. I will ignore inclusion of Unique Artefact Inscriptions for this list, but where mentioned a player may opt to use the Rune of Reflection over a Shielding Rune on their character where they might find use from it.

Following that I will include some examples on some setups I might use (and I say 'might' as in if ideal Inscriptions of the type drop and are available for use) for character combinations in game.

--Picking Inscriptions

Picking Inscriptions can vary quite a bit depending on what drops from enemies and is available to the player from shops. However, generally there are four different aspects players should look into for their Inscriptions to handle - after considerations are made regarding the class or race they are playing, their current gear, and what works with their playstyle.

Handling Detrimental Effects - Players should always be wary of debilitating effects that enemies apply to their characters. Primarily and early on, detrimental physical effects deserve the most attention; so players should usually have a Wild Infusion or Shatter Afflictions Rune to remove physical effects, and to a lesser extent Healing Infusions for Bleeds, Poisons, and Diseases. Players may consider how other Inscriptions help alleviate debuffs but ultimately the focus should be on removing them outright.

A player may opt to ignore using such Inscriptions where they feel their Immunities or Saves are high enough or they may opt for Inscriptions such as Movement Infusion which grant immunity to being locked down. However, more then likely they should have one dedicated Inscriptions available for removing detrimental effects outright in a pinch; perhaps two if needed.

Preserving Your Character - Sort of a given, but dying is something you want to avoid. Healing Infusions and Regeneration Infusions can allow players to restore lost hit points in a fight while Shielding Runes and Stormshield Runes can prevent the character from losing health when they receive damage. Heroism Infusions also sort of sneak in here - though their primary use is more about seeing you through a fight by allowing your hit points to go lower then zero. Wild Infusions, Blink Runes, and Ethereal Runes technically deserve a mention in helping you stay alive too; even if this isn't their primary purpose usually.

Usually at least one dedicated Inscription, being a Healing Infusion, Regeneration Infusion, or Shielding Rune early on; should be handy to directly replenish or prevent hit point loss on a character. Depending on what other Inscriptions a player plans to incorporate on their character, a player may opt only for only two dedicated Inscriptions for this.

I recommend that a player potentially includes at least two Inscriptions that are Healing Infusions, Regeneration Infusions, or Shielding Runes early on. Later on it is likely a good idea to check out Heroism, Stormshield, or some of the special Inscriptions for defensive purposes when they become available.

Tactically Repositioning in Engagements - Commonly called Escape buttons, a player should have at least one dedicated Inscription to move their character around. This can include the Movement Infusion, Blink Rune, or Teleport Rune. While of course useful for escape, one should also note that these Inscriptions can also be used offensively as well - getting a player directly into an engagement rather then getting them out of it.

At least one Inscription for movement purposes should be looked into for a player. Sometimes a player may opt to include a second where moving around is specifically important for the class being played or in regards to the players playstyle if they are looking intently at that immunity to Stuns, Dazes, and Pins on Movement Infusions. On ranged characters it can also be useful for reloading your ammunition quickly so having an extra can be useful for that purpose.

Gameplay Inscriptions - Certain Inscriptions like the Steam Generator Implant and the Manasurge, Acid Wave, and Biting Gale Runes can hold their own importance in gameplay. The value and use of these Inscriptions really depends on the player's playstyle, the class they are playing, and what dungeon they are delving into at any given moment though.

Arcane Users may want to make use of a Manasurge Rune in regards to managing their Mana resource since without one they can't function nearly as well. Same goes for Steam Generator Implants on the Tinker classes.

Biting Gale Runes can work well with characters that have actions focusing on Stunning or Freezing Opponents or early on to just lock down enemies in Ice Cubes. Acid Wave Runes can turn scary weapon wielding characters into a joke for a few turns.

You can technically ignore the Offensive Runes on most characters; they will lose a lot of their bite as you progressively get farther into the game. However, this doesn't mean they can't be useful and they should be tried to see if they are to your taste. The Manasurge Rune and Steam Generator Implant should likely be taken for those classes with the resources they play into; sometimes you can do without them, sometimes you'll want another one of them.

Inscriptions of Past Versions

These Inscriptions were ultimately removed from the game. They may have been replaced with a similar Inscription - this being what happened to the Phase Door/Controlled Phase Door Rune that got replaced by the Blink Rune.

--Retired Infusions

Lacking in use for players compared to other Inscriptions they might use and not really providing much of a threat when used by enemies, these Infusions were ultimately removed from the game.

Sun – Instant Use, Lights up tiles and stealthy enemies within an X tile radius of the player. Reduces Stealth power of opponents by Y and attempts to blind opponents by Z for N turns.

General Usage: The Sun Infusion were a tactical infusion that the player could use to light up unlit tiles and reduces the ability of stealthy opponents to stay hidden. In addition to providing some light on things It could also blind other units - allies included.

The Sun Infusion was a fairly common infusion sported by enemy Orcs and as such one was generally having to make a lot of checks against being blinded when running through the Orc Prides. That said it wasn't really anything to worry about most of the time and because it blinded allies too it was possible that Orcs you were facing would commonly blind themselves.

Insidious Poison – Instant Use. Inflict X Nature Damage against a target per turn for N turns. Reduces the targets Healing Modifier by Y while active. Also removes one random detrimental Magical effect if present on a character.

General Usage:General Usage: The Insidious Poison would reduce the amount of healing an enemy would benefit from when using healing effects, thus hindering their ability to restore their health in an engagement. They could also remove detrimental Magical effects to preserve other Inscriptions that remove detrimental Magical effects.

When this was used against the player, it would mostly just made it harder to replenish lost health on your character more then anything else. Used against the enemy it likely wouldn't do much as enemies didn't really know how to properly heal themselves.

--Upgraded Runes

These Runes were ultimately reworked into the new Blink, Ethereal, and Stormshield Runes. In their original forms they were obviously missing some features which made them less sought after by players.

Phase Door – 1 Turn to use. Teleports the character randomly to a tile within X tiles from the character. Negative Status Effect duration reduced by X, Defense stat boosted by Y, and Resistances boosted by Z.

General Usage: Defensive action to reposition of a character within an engagement, reduce Negative Status Effect duration, and give increased Defense, Resistance.

This was a starting rune for the Undead, Shaloran, and Ogres but has since been combined with the Controlled Phase Door Rune. It was quite the haphazard rune as it would ultimately send the player character in a random direction like the Teleport Rune does - but closeby to where they moved from. It did raise Defense somewhat but this really didn't make up for the potentially to be thrown into a bad position.

Controlled Phase Door – 1 Turn to use. Teleport to within a 2 tile radius of a targeted tile within X tiles of the character. Tiles targeted not within your line of sight may cause the Controlled Phase Door to work like a regular Phase Door and teleport you randomly instead to within X tiles.

General Usage: Instant repositioning of a character against enemies. Can also be used to get to less accessible areas or for direct movement towards a specific destination.

The Controlled Phase Door Rune is the counterpart to the regular Phase Door Rune. Much like the Blink Rune does now it would allow the player to move in a specific direction - although unlike the Blink Rune you didn't necessarily need Line of Sight to use it. This made it useful enough to consider but as Inscriptions were added in more and more it definitely needed a buff; combining it with the regular Phase Door certainly made it an awesome consideration to use.

Invisibility – 1 Turn to Use. Become Invisible with X Power for N Turns. Reduces damage you inflict by 40%.

General Usage: Turns the player Invisible and prevents enemies more like to miss the player or completely fail to target them properly.

The father to the Etheral Runes, Invisibility Runes were essentially the same as them - except they didn't give any buffs to the players All Resistance.

Lightning – Instant Use. Fires a beam that will do X Lightning Damage. Will also apply the Elemental Surge: Lightning buff, which will cause the player to take no damage from the first attack received between actions and move then randomly to an adjacent tile.

General Usage: Provides the player with the ability to negate the first attack that hits them between actions. Additionally can be used to provide some extra offensive damage.

A bit of a sketchy rune to use, Lightning Runes were an interesting mix of a defensive rune and a offensive one. For melee classes the Rune was a bit annoying to use as it may move you away from enemies you were targeting but it wasn't necessarily a useless run either. This Rune was ultimately replaced by the

--Retired Runes

Similar to the retired Infusions, these Runes were retired because they didn't really do much when used by enemies on the player and came up lacking versus other Inscriptions - or at least in Heat Beam's case the Shatter Afflictions Rune negated a lot of its worth.

Vision – 1 Turn to use. Reveal knowledge of the terrain to the player within X tiles of the character. Increase detection of Stealth or Invisible enemies by Y power. For N turns you sense a creature type as specified on the rune within the X tiles of your character.

General Usage: Gives the player tactical knowledge of the layout around the character and improves their detection of stealthy or invisible enemies. Additionally provides telepathy to one enemy type.

While clairvoyance sounds like it would be powerful, in general this Rune was simply not so. Generally, all of the effects present on the Vision Rune are weak and subpar. Other abilities to reveal the terrain or detect enemies in your immediate area exist and should be sought after instead of using this Rune.

Heat Beam – Instant Use. Fires a beam that does X Fire Damage per turn for 5 Turns. Removes one random detrimental Physical effect.

General Usage: Removes a detrimental Physical effect afflicting the character. Additionally can be used to provide some weak damage on an enemy with a Burning effect.

Typically, Heat Beam Runes were considered the weakest of the offensive Inscriptions - a result of their damage output being quite weak, fire based (which is commonly resisted), and spread over several turns rather then being upfront . Most players would generally not use them for removing detrimental physical effects due to a preference for Wild Infusions and the damage reduction they give in addition; bar those playing Undead characters which really don't have a choice when looking to remove such effects.

--Retired Taint

Ungrol's old rewarded Taint wasn't really up to much before it was replaced by the Taint of Purging.

Taint of Telepathy – Instant Use. Grants telepathy, revealing presence of all enemies within a radius of 10 for 5 turns. Reduces Mind Save by 10 and increases Mindpower by 35 for 10 turns.

General Usage: Divines the presence of enemies within a limited radius. Additionally used to increase Mindpower on the character.

This was the only Taint available to players in game but was ultimately replaced by the Taint of Purging. It was awarded to the player for helping Ungrol of Last Hope complete his potions for the Brotherhood of Alchemists. It was pretty weak as an Inscription with little point of being used.

Inscriptions Ranked

In previous versions of this guide I had a tier ranking for all the various Inscriptions. That is no longer present but I have done a tier list ranking them. You can view the videos where I go into explanations for them or the specific tier list in the links below:

DFuxa Rates - Tales of Maj'Eyal Inscriptions Part 1 - Common Infusions & Runes
DFuxa Rates - Tales of Maj'Eyal Inscriptions Part 2 - Artefact & Steamtech

DFuxa Rates - Tales of Maj'Eyal Inscriptions[tiermaker.com]

[DFuxa]

I haven't updated this guide to reflect version 1.5, but I'm not sure much changed in 1.5 regarding inscriptions - and I won't be bothering to update the guide now that version 1.6 is on the horizon.

[zion6]

Has this been updated to reflect current 1.5 version?

[zion6]

@blank user name with photo
What exactly is wrong with this? Besides a nasty rant an opinion on what ones are better/worse would help. Anonymous is fine but I need a guide

[errantstar]

You're wrong about: movement, healing/regen infusions vs shielding, offensive runes, PD rune, unstoppable force salve.... I could go on but how you manage to put so much misinformation in is astounding. Maybe it's because your posts are 100x longer than they need to be.

[errantstar]

What the fuck this is awful. Why is this on bpat's good guide list?

[Kazeck]

As some one who has played tome for years I wholely recommend this guide to anyone, as a good repository of information in an easy to understand format and style. Excellent work Davion, and thank you for posting such an informative and well put together guide.

[Evershifting]

Really nice and helpful guide

[DFuxa]

I reworded the Lightning Rune section somewhat to hopefully emphasis 'position' a bit more then just being a Melee character.

[DFuxa]

Lightning Runes can indeed be useful but it doesn't really help if you are in an engagement where Tactical Positioning is important to land in less desirable locations. That of course hurts the Melee classes most but that doesn't mean that casters and ranged characters aren't also put off by it. On my current Dwarven Skirmisher run for example I used the Lightning Rune quite a bit but eventually ditched it due to how sensitive positioning can sometimes be.

[glass zebra]

You make it sound like the lighting infusions are only counting for melee and that they are ok to move away from the enemy, if still random. What about the fact that you can be fully immune to damage for 5 rounds against a signle burst "caster" boss? Because thats what they are able to do. The only downside is, that they aren't really working for enemeis that use dots or mutli attacks. As a ranged character facing a boss, this rune can be extremly powerful and even way more useful than a shielding rune against single enemies.
And they are espeically usefull on alchemist golems, since the shielding runes don't really help much when tanking bosses.