Hi,
I made it to the Rapax Rift with my special party now.

The Sea Caves were easy for me ( first time I met an Adamantium Slime ) and I have the Destinae Dominus now. Because it was a long trip from the shops to Marten and back again, my party had to start another tour "Monsters all a round the world" . I was lucky and found many potions ,powders and items so I earned enough money and my personal "Drug Store" was stocked up easily. Finished the Retro's and now my party has reached Lvl 26 ( I really wonder what Lvl my party will have with this gamestyle at Ascension Peak later ).

The only thing I don't know is : How effective is a max Magic Screen against those highlevel fire attacks ? From my experience I got much more damage from those scorchers than usual and my fire resistance isn't that good. I think that combat with the lava monster and his minions will be the biggest problem in this area ( maybe another good time for me to use my favourite potion on this tour : Canned Elemental [img]graemlins/showoff.gif[/img] ).

If I survive I'll report it to you later.

Greetings

With only Magic Screen, at PL7, i usually take noticably less than half as much damage per blast; adding Element Shield makes it more like a tenth.
My non-magic party was illiterate and couldn't even use any scrolls. I take the game in a differesnt sequence than you've described, always going to the Castle as soon as i get to L15. That's when you can get the good stuff from Ferro, and add a quick 25% to everyone's resistances.

Hi Scatter you're right,

getting to Ferro early might have been a better choice, but you know, it's the first time I played an 8 character party without magicians. So at beginning I wasn't sure about the right sequence and tried to get the healing and protection gadgets and instruments early . I thought level-up quick is the best way because I wanted to raise skills to max as soon as possible and of course 3 Bards and 2 Gadgeteers need tons of stamina and missiles so fighting only for money was neccessary.

I don't use many scrolls too because they are nearly useless in this stage of the game and the Missile Shield Scroll (LvL 3) is really a joke now.

When I started the party I was sure it would be the last trip through Dominus because I am searching for a good new game ( didn't find one up to now ) but my current party members were killed often and so I think there must be a way to reduce "dying" to a minimum . With my experience from this trip and with the informations I got from you all I believe I'll give it another try even if I think after more than a year with W8 there MUST be a good new game in the near future [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img] .

Greetings

I'm still waiting for that good new game.

[ 10-23-2003, 06:51 AM: Message edited by: dplax ]

Me, too. I ordered Galactic Civilizations this week just for a break. I read that the strategy element is high and the user interface hassle low. If you don't want to pay for mag reviews, you can also go to Amazon.com and read other people's remarks. It's a convenient and free trick. If I like GalCiv, I may put in a short review. But it is not a CRPG. I'm in a holding pattern until another good one comes along.

Meanwhile, I will continue playing Wiz 8. Not quite ready to go back to Wiz 6 or 7. Or any other.

my experience with magic resistance is similar to yours and scatter's, loudhy. having said that, it's not really that dangerous to have low resistances if you have access to cheap heal all's (bard/gadg). furthermore, given the diminishing returns at high levels (eg 10% damage to 5%), pushing things like iron will, or taking the cloak of many colours over the cloak of perception is only marginally useful.

i'm also waiting for a new game (drug). taking a break from wiz 8 at the moment to read some books that have been piling up. but it's still at the top of my to do list for leisure time :D