Nexus Champion Build

[ten_of_swords]

The aim of this NC build is terrain control/defensive attrition: have the most soak and dodge (if MO is close to 0) while sitting on a Glyph of Protection vs Neutral so only Goods and Evils are attackers. That's presuming the Tattoo of Adaptation works in that way. Skipped advanced archery for Sharp vision, as it's 20 less CP. It's also for occasionally tracking other glyph users.

Was wondering what the issues were with this build? Are there better ways to do this with an NC? Is the glyph use better for factioned rather than ferals?

Lvl CP Skill
1 10 Engineering
1 -- Saved --
2 10 Search
3 10 Sense Magic
4 10 Repair Item
5 -- Saved --
6 20 Bowyer
7 10 Strength
8 -- Saved --
9 20 Stamina
10 0 Critical Hit
11 30 Master Bowyer
11 10 Ranged Combat
12 20 Super Reflexes
13 20 Archery
14 20 Meditation
15 20 Tap Leyline
16 10 Psychic Bloodhound
16 10 Planar Protection
17 20 Combat Mastery
18 -- Saved --
19 -- Saved --
20 0 Tattoo of Altered Luck
20 30 Tattoo of Resistance
21 60 Tattoo of Adaptation
22 30 Tattoo of Balance
23 -- Saved --
24 60 Tattoo of Equilibrium
25 30 Tattoo of Sorcery
26 -- Saved --
27 60 Tattoo of the Soul
28 -- Saved --
29 -- Saved --
30 20 Glyph of Protection vs Neutral
30 15 Glyph of Slowing vs Good
30 15 Glyph of Slowing vs Evil
30 30 Tattoo of Strength
30 20 Strong Attack
30 +15 for Exploration Badges
30 15 Major Glyph Erasure
30 +10 for Exploration Badges
30 10 Sharp Vision

[Sihoiba]

If you're playing Adamant Kinship character why bother with PP?
Psychic Bloodhound is going to be of very limited use. Leylines are too buys to get any useful information from, and I've benefit from seeing the caster of wards as a factioned NC once this breath so far.

I don't see the benefit of major glyph erasure either on this build.

With the 15 unused exploration badges that gives you another 60CP to spend.

How are you presuming Tattoo of Adaptation works?

[ten_of_swords]

Thanks for the reply.

PP is just for if my NC chooses to leave AK, go wandering the planes, join a faction, etc. PP is the freedom skill, no?

I actually conflated tattoo of equilibrium and opposition into adaptation. Not sure how I did that.

Anyways, why is major glyph erasure not useful?

[Sihoiba]

What glyphs do you intend to remove? They'll be mostly set up inside, and occasionally outside of faction SHs.

Also Tattoo of the Wandering Way kind of alleviates a lot of the need for PP if you have specific places on the planes you want to visit.

[Aidan]

[TL;DR at end]

In T1:

Starting with Engineering, unless you've already done so, is a pretty bad idea. Consider putting Search on top, since that gives you 10 books you can quickly read to the next level, and then go for Engineering. Power plants let you craft portable toolkits, so you are not missing out on anything important.

Try to have mostly XP-earning skills near the beginning of the build (again, always helps if you mark where exactly in the build you currently are). By this I mean that you should get Repair Item before Sense Magic.

Skip Stamina in T1. An extra 10 HP right now will do nothing to your survivability (you are just extra XP for whoever murders you). I'd suggest replacing both Strength and Stamina with Master Bowyer early. The reduced AP to craft will help you level even faster. Possibly skip Stamina completely since you have no other HP boosting skills and you can save 20 CP that you can then spend on enhanced senses.

I see you are skipping your combat skills till T2. This isn't a _bad_ idea, since you can find a lot of broken stuff just by searching (and when you die, you will regenerate a ton of broken stuff again). But it is going to get somewhat boring.

Also, whenever you get Strength, consider putting it off till you've got Ranged Combat (at the very least). A +20 inventory is nice, but you aren't brewing/likely to be wearing armor right now, and the +1 to archery damage is useless till you can fight.

Psychic Bloodhound is a skill of dubious utility. It is an informational skill, for starters, and finding out who cast a glyph or tapped a ley line is situational (at its best). You won't really know where they are either, which is what you seem to think it does. Consider skipping entirely.

----------------------

In T2:

I see you are skipping Enhanced Senses, which is arguably the best hunting skill in the game. Seeing hidden people will nearly double your hunting powers. Heartily recommend unless you are joining an actively raiding faction (in which case you can skip it completely and still be happy).

Planar Protection isn't really _necessary._ You can live fine without it (and if you have a faction, a friendly alchemist can probably make you a batch of Planar Protection potions that let you wander heaven and hell). Especially if you are going feral and joining Adamant Kinship, in which case you will mostly remain in Laurentia anyway.

However, if you are considering a respectable amount of exploration / hunting in Elysium/Stygia, go for it!

--------------------------

In T3:

In Tier 3 (or T3 aka Nexus Champ level), I would spend my starting CP on Tattoo of the Wandering Way. All T3 classes have a 'travel skill' that really helps in traversing the planes. Wandering Way is especially powerful, and skipping it completely seems like a mistake (imagine teleporting around using your MP instead of walking all the way to where you hunt/to the raid location).

Major Glyph Erasure is useless if you are not raiding. As a feral, if there's a glyph against you sitting on a tile, you are always better off spending the AP (and MP) to go hunting elsewhere. As a factioned player, there's almost always someone else (someone who went Sorcerer/Shepherd/Defiler, no doubt), who has Greater Glyph Erasure and will make it a waste of 20 CP. Plus, glyphs are almost always set up inside strongholds in the first place... I am a glyph-buster for my faction, and I haven't destroyed a single glyph so far in this breath despite packing Greater Glyph Erasure.

Good point on Sharp Vision, but remember that it is a pain in the butt recharging and triggering spellgems to hunt properly. I can attest to the fact since I have a throwy defiler with Sharp Vision who eventually ended up buying Advanced Thrown Weapons because of the poor performance of Sharp Vision, especially in live combat where if you get hit, you lose ticks (duration).

I am not entirely sure where you are going with all the glyphs. Maintaining even one is a right pain. Maintaining three will be a nightmare (also, glyphs have a duration, just in case you are confused. 1.5 hours per cast means a full spellgem will give you a glyph that lasts about 6 hours). Yes, glyphs definitely perform better in the factional atmosphere, but then you don't need glyphs against both good and evil unless you are in an unaligned faction.

------------------------------

So, to recap:

* Skip Psychic Bloodhound (10 CP), Major Glyph Erasure (15 CP), Stamina (20 CP), Planar Protection (10 CP). This saves you a total of 55 CP. 15 more exploration badges give you 70 CP.

* Use this to buy Enhanced Senses (40 CP) and Tattoo of the Wandering Way (30 CP).

* Reconsider glyphs in general. I haven't heard of anyone using them for hunting, or attrition, or area denial since they fade faster than ink in alcohol.

* Switch several of your skills around so you have XP-earning skills near the front.

------

I think this build demonstrates what I am trying to say. Note that it tries to retain most of your current build, which may not be the best idea (other NCs can advise you to this effect):

Lvl CP Skill
1 10 Search
1 0 -- Saved --
2 10 Engineering
3 10 Repair Item
4 0 -- Saved --
5 20 Bowyer
6 0 -- Saved --
7 0 -- Saved --
8 30 Master Bowyer
9 0 -- Saved --
10 0 Critical Hit
10 10 Ranged Combat
10 20 Archery
11 10 Strength
12 20 Meditation
13 0 -- Saved --
14 40 Enhanced Senses
15 20 Strong Attack
16 20 Combat Mastery
17 10 Sense Magic
17 20 Super Reflexes
18 0 -- Saved --
19 0 -- Saved --
20 0 Tattoo of Altered Luck
20 30 Tattoo of the Wandering Way
20 30 Tattoo of Sorcery
20 10 Sharp Vision
21 30 Tattoo of Strength
22 30 Tattoo of Balance
23 0 -- Saved --
24 60 Tattoo of Equilibrium
25 30 Tattoo of Resistance
26 0 -- Saved --
27 60 Tattoo of Adaptation
28 0 -- Saved --
29 60 Tattoo of the Soul
29 -20 20 Exploration Badges
29 -20 20 Exploration Badges
30 20 Glyph of Protection vs Neutral
30 15 Glyph of Slowing vs Good
30 15 Glyph of Slowing vs Evil
30 20 Tap Leyline
_________________
For the Kin!

[Yukari]

Since he will be staying at 0 MOR *and* be casting protection vs neutral, I can see how GGE can actually come in handy if he ever missteps or needs to get rid of the glyph he himself cast. If you have nowhere else to put the CP I don't think it's wholly a bad choice, though, agreed, you won't be using it all that often.

EDIT: And yes, get Enhanced Senses, specially if you are planning to be a soaky feral. A tactic you are going to see being used often against you is shadow-dancing in order to bypass your soak, and ES nullifies this completely (unless it is a void walker doing that with invisibility, or a fallen with shadow skulking.)
_________________
Tanks for everything.

[ten_of_swords]

Cheers for the input everyone. Had to think on this before replying.

The Fool already has Engineering and Search down. I'll do the first 2 tiers along the lines of what Aidan laid out, adding in adv archery and ES as Yukari mentions. Also scrapping all glyphs. A helpful write up.

In that scattershot sort of way I'm "optimizing" for defense against T2s via equilibrium, adaptation.

In keeping with that aim, how useful is the first tiger? Is it necessary to get the second tiger? This is versus the T2. I'm assuming all combat T3s will just uncork in a few clicks since they'll be undeterred and well-equipped for any target.
EDIT: Just found a thread mentioning this.