I think it's there just to give you one more option. Besides, it looks pretty cool B-)
When playing with a duellist-champion, though, the runic blade has a very attractive ability: it increases the power of its enchantment by a ton. Once I got a projecting runic blade, and I could hit enemies all the way across large rooms. Very entertaining!
Nice! Congratulations.
Yes! That's what I did. I needed to upgrade the leather armor to survive the jail and the first few levels of caves. Once I got the ring, I used the SoU on the ring and my thrown weapon (to activate the sniper shot). With the shared enchantment talent, the fishing spear became grim as well!
Nice! It's a nice change of pace to see runs with lower-tier items. I chose to go with the gladiator since I knew the combos would supplement the low offense, and the extra shielding would do the same for armor. Trying with a freerunner is an intersting idea, though.
Thanks!
Upgrade scrolls: actually I haven't upgraded my weapon at all (I found the sword +1 somewhere in the jail). I'm hoping to find a +2 or +3 tier-3 weapon. I also have an enchantment stone, waiting for the right weapon. Also, I've only spent two SoU on the armor (found at +2, another +2 from the troll).
Interesting idea to use a freerunner. That's a class that I've never tried, though, and it seems difficult to use well (like the duellist monk).
Regarding rings and wands, I don't put any restrictions on them, since (as you said) they don't have a tier, so they're fair game.
Each level in the demon halls (levels 20-24) has one. I always go after them at the start of each level; otherwise you'll have to deal with lots of demon rippers.
Amazing!
Just keep trying and you'll get there. It took me many, many games, and I still lose much more than I win with two challenges. Sometimes it feels like a whole different game, once you enable a couple of challenges.
After being able to consistently win without challenges, I activated three and then two challenges, only to consistently lose! I had to take it slow and learn new strategies for each challenge, and then learn to apply them all at once. You also need to be lucky and get the right equipment!
TLDR, take it slow and keep trying to improve your strategy, eventually you'll get there.
Good point!
For a battlemage, hitting with a warding staff will heal all wards. That can make a high-level warding staff quite fun to play with, but it does require a bit of strategy and luck.