Right on. I intentionally didn’t look up any builds or guides. I just went with what was working for me, so I actually burned all my transmutation scrolls to get that ring of haste early enough to level it.

With the ring of haste I was basically able to strafe almost all damage from level 20 till arriving with the ring. I think I only needed one potion of healing on the way up. I basically didn’t need armor because I never got hit. Once you learn the attack patterns you just move away, and in a pet build, send in your rose spirit or earth golem to fight.

I think in the future I would stick with, at least in mage, the same approach of damage avoidance rather than damage tolerance.