CoRe is fun if gimmicky
YAVP: Coglin Reaver of Okawaru, later Lugonu
Reaver still has a bit of a weird class identity that really doesn't cohere into anything functional by itself. But adding Rending Blade to the spell list has finally given it a real identity: it's the class where you're guaranteed to have Rending Blade! And you also get some other spells that you might never cast.
Rending Blade is awkward to use (as are most Forgecraft spells) but it's frankly kind of ridiculous on Coglin. I don't think I've ever o-tabbed harder. Though the significant defensive weaknesses of Coglin still put me into bad situations occasionally.
Mini guide to this combo:
- Equip two spears.
- Polearms up to 6 if you can find a trident, otherwise only needs to be at 2.
- Once you hit level 4 (should be easy since Coglin hard carry the early dungeon), memorize Rending Blade.
- Worship Okawaru (unfortunately, Okawaru is just too good on Coglins). You might want to convert away later in the game so you can cast more Forgecraft but it's up to you - Finesse is absurd with Rending Blade!
- Level Forgecraft and Conjuration in whatever ratio makes most sense to you, until Rending Blade comes online.
- Once you've done that, get Polearms to mindelay.
- Now you can quit the game, because you've already won.
The only higher-level Forgecraft spells I had for most of the game were Hellfire Mortar (absurdly expensive to skill for!) and Splinterfrost Shell (this turns out to be really strong if you happen to be a polearm using Coglin).
I think this was my first ever win where I skipped Slime. I don't like 0.34 Slime. I trained Splinterfrost Shell specifically for Slime only to discover that:
- Shining Eyes just ignore it entirely since they're now using Smite targeting.
- Star Jelly shooting stars are apparently smart enough to ignore it?? Seems like they just stand around awkwardly instead.
I don't like it! Star Jellies are more dangerous than feels reasonable and Shining Eyes switching to Smite targeting was a terrible change imo since now you can't avoid mutation through clever use of tactics - the only tactic is "have strong ranged options" which was already very important for Slime.
I also skipped Crypt which is unusual for me - I just entered the area, saw Mennas greeting me, and immediately backed out.
I managed to get Platinum Paragon comfortably online during Zot and wow, what a spell. It's very funny how Forgecraft, the school whose callsign seems to be extreme awkwardness, has a powerful smite-targeted summon as its capstone. Skilling for Paragon is still awkward since it really prefers you to be a hybrid who can cast level 9 spells. Also preferably you should have an incredibly strong artifact.
Anyway, CoRe is a very fun but very awkward combo. Activate Finesse then Rending Blade and ask yourself: Will it blend?