This game needs a way to very quickly adjust the auto-sell level. It's less of a problem early on, but when you get to the stage where you aren't interested in anything under level 300, every time you open up the game it becomes a hideous chore.
Basic explanation of combining:
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When combining items, different stats behave differently. Attack, attack speed, lifesteal and movespeed stack additively. Crit damage stacks partially additively. (You'll retain most of the crit damage when you have a 0+X combo, and 2 items with 12 CritDmg will give you 19 CritDmg or thereabouts). Crit chance is the average of the two items being combined. Heal effects are cancelling in favour of the inferior one (i.e., 2 healing staffs will combine to give you the healing effects of the inferior one). Peculiar effects such as taunt, phoenix, guzzle will be retained fully.
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HELLWRATH can be obtained by combining two Gods Wrath Axes. In addition to having high damage (Gods Wraths have the highest damage per lv of any item in the game), the resulting item will also have 999% Crit Damage and -200% lifesteal.
Regen enchantments are OP as all hell. With a little MP Regen and Transmutation, everything becomes an artifact. Never die because HP regens so much. GG. Still, heaps of fun and my productivity has been nixxed.
I am deeply, profoundly appreciative of an RPG with story development centred around both winning AND losing fights and battles. That is very rare. Loved it.
Beastmaster with a bow. Cleric. Ranger.
Early on: Use the regenerating wolf to take hits, draw aggro, tie down enemies early on.
Against the big boss or later bosses: If you can find a corner and have one person untouchable, put your ranger (or self) in there. The outside meatshields will die, but they will bodyblock and since the enemy has no ranged mobs, you will be able to just chip them all down. If you need 4 people to create an untouchable spot, put your wolf/ally in the corner. Have them keep reviving your heroes. (Only if they are melee. If they are ranged, have them attack the enemy shamelessly as before) This method is messier, but still works, IF you have either tanky enough people (who can survive a round after being revived and deal a little damage) or if they have rune of retaliation (the regenerating thornmail tactic)
Once you get your mind out of the save-load-grind RPG mentality, and start to think of this as an arcade game like one of those Super Mario variants, you'll realize this is an A-grade, old-school hardcore, ultra-minimalist game. Minimap would be cool though.