Character Builds in Inventaverse

As I was creating the plethora of character types in Inventaverse, I wanted to keep in mind that flexibility is important to the player. Not yoga flexibility, play style flexibility.  The player should be able to play the way they want to play, and by playing they should be able to reward themselves with a more capable character in their chosen play style.

It was in this line of thinking that I came up with a rough list consisting of the basic styles of game play in Inventaverse.

1. The Sniper
2. The Brawler
3. The Assassin
4. The Adventurer

Each of these play styles features a unique mindset that defines it.  The Sniper is wholly concerned with eliminating targets from a distance.  The Brawler is designed to perform well in close quarters combat situations.  The Assassin is stealthy and relies on surprise ambush attacks.  The Adventurer isn't primarily concerned with battle and instead is focused on things like collecting treasure and progression.

Let's look at these in detail and explore the subtle variations of each.

Sniper Build

Since the goal of the sniper is to kill targets at long range, it makes sense for a good sniper build to be one that can elliminate an enemy with a single, very powerful shot.  Consider the following basic sniper build:

Character: Aetherian Sniper
Artifacts: Singularity Beam, Inceptium Ring, Antiverse AP
Mentor: Cosmologist, Astromancer variant build

1. Nanonova AP
2. Beam damage increase
3. Passive healing

Incantations:

1. Convert health to weapon ranks
2. Convert health to magic and Dissolve block at target location
3. Ward: Auto attack nearby enemy, with alert

How it works:
Two important things to consider when playing a sniper are: fire power, and cover.  It's vital to be able to destroy a target as quickly as possibly so they have little time to activate any countermeasures, and its also important to avoid being located while you do it.  All three of the equipped artifacts add damage, and the selected skill traits either add damage or supply passive healing to counteract the health conversion incantations.  The incantations in this build are key.  Maxing out weapon ranks is important, because it increases firing frequency of the Aetherian Sniper, making the conversion from health to weapon ranks useful.  Health -> magic -> dissolve blocks is important because it makes the sniper difficult to get to.  Simply tuck yourself away somewhere remote.  The ward incantations is the most important.  Not only does it warn you when someone is close to your location, it pops them out of stealth with a minor damaging attack.

Brawler Build

The brawler is a character build that's awesome in combat.  It must be able to come out on top in a battle and take out multiple enemies.  Hard to kill, and extremely dangerous.

Character: Warlock
Artifacts: Inceptium Ring, Blast Amulet, Refractive Field Generator
Mentor: Conjurer, Archmagus variant build

1. Wizard's Fire
2. Weapon ranks reduce Cd of Wizard's Fire
3. Double shot
4. +2 Weapon rank traits

Incantations:

1. Convert weapon rank to health
2. Spend gold to cast Annihilate at target location
3. Ward: Auto attack nearby enemy with blast

How it works:
The combination of the Warlock's exploding fire balls(2 at a time with doubleshot trait) and the Wizard's Fire trait make this a very destructive build.  The blast amulet gives the warlock immunity to the Wizard's Fire explosive damage and also reduces 50% of incoming damage from enemies.  The combination of the inceptium ring and +2 weapon rank trait ensure that Wizard's Fire can be cast as often as possible. The optional refractive field generator keeps the Warlock safe from snipers and beam damage from other players.  Being able to use those weapon ranks to heal on demand is a helpful incantation and in coordination with the auto blast incantation for maximum proximity protection.  This build rounds out nicely with a gold to damage conversion in the form of annihilate.

Assassin Build

If stealthily destroying the enemy is your forte, this basic assassin build is exactly what you're looking for.  Sneak up on the enemy and instantly destroy them, and if they get wise to your tricks, instantly teleport away.

Character: Shadow Beast
Artifacts: Higgs Field Amplifier, Compass, Inceptium AP
Mentor: Occultist, Oracle variant build

1. Special abilities that cost health take 50% less health trait
2. Quadshot
3. Reduce cooldown of all eldritch artifacts by 50%
4. Causing damage now heals you trait
5. + 25% health
6. Healing effects increased by 25%

Incantations:

1. Convert health to weapon rank
2. Spend weapon ranks to cast Annihilate at target location
3. Spend x to create a physical block at target location

How it works:
The shadow beast is a powerful assassin but, he is limited by his health pool in that he spends a small amount of health for every second he's in stealth.  A great way to counteract this is to spec into the many self healing traits of the occultist tree.  In addition to that, we can over spec into those healing traits and use health as an incantation resource, since we know we'll get it back from those traits and the self heal applied by the Inceptium AP.  So, we'll sneak up on our prey, use the Higgs Field(on a reduced cooldown) to lock it into place and nuke it with quadshot, the annihilate incantation and the Inceptium AP.  If they are alive to counter attack, simply teleport to safety using the Compass on a reduced cooldown.  Rinse and repeat.  This build rounds out with a little mobility from physical block incantation and a weapon upgrade incantation, that we can bank magic into for later use.

Adventurer Build

Character: Spaceman
Artifacts:Skeleton Key, The Antidote, The Blast Amulet
Mentor: Conjurer, Alchemist variant build

1. Completing a world rewards you with twice the gold collected in that world.
2. Wizard's Fire
3. Damage taken from explosions is reduced by 50%

Incantations:

1. Convert health to weapon rank
2. Convert weapon rank to health
3. Spend weapon ranks to improve visibility

How it works:
This build is great for progressing your character, you collect double gold, because you have the skeleton key, you don't have to waste time finding the key to open the treasure chest, and the mobility of the spaceman is exceptionally good. The only problem is that the spaceman has fairly weak damage, but this is helped by using the Wizard's Fire trait when needed.  The antidote allows you to use poison to heal and the blast amulet will nullify the explosive damage of the Wizard's fire and provide a nice 50% passive damage reduction.  Incantations can be used to add weapon ranks, health or to improve visibility, in darkened areas.

These builds are just a few I came up with off the top of my head, the potential for variety is enormous!  Experiment, mix and match, and find the best builds that work for you!  In my next post, I'll show you how we can expand on these themes to create some really interesting advanced hybrid builds.  Until next time...