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Well, I finally did it, my first vanilla winner. i hadn't played in... probably well over a decade, so the changes were a heck of a sight to see (and IMO, largely improvements):
My first restarted character of any significance was a Dunadan ranger. I found Ringil for the first time ever, and Cubragol for the first time ever -- both in the same game! Easy win? No, I kinda... well, honestly the character stopped being fun for me at around 3500'. I lost the character dump to history but the various hounds and Maia I was running into down there ended up in that character being miserable to play and I... well, kinda said "f-it" and basically played stupidly and let myself get killed.
Honestly, the problem was I had been playing the ranger too much like a Warrior, just making use of the "quality of life" spells like Mapping and Stone to mud. And, if I'm gonna play that way, might as well just be a warrior and get all the benefits of it.
And so I did. I slow-balled my ranger pretty severely, going through each level multiple times before going down to the next. The Warrior i played more aggressively, making frequent use of Deep Descent until I got down to 2500 feet, hanging out at depth ranges for a while (particularly to stat-max at about 1650-1900'). From about 2500-4200 or so was more of a steady decline -- clearing most levels but absolutely being willing to "nope" out of there if it got hairy. From about 4200 downward I shifted mindset to pure unique-hunting. Honestly after the late 3000s the levels themselves didn't get much harder, except in that more dangerous uniques came up (and I made *sure* to kill them, not wanting Sauron or Morgy to summon them).
Some bits of good luck:
Things I like about new angband:
Play tip that was probably true even in old Angband but I'd forgotten about:
Random thoughts on inventory management:
My first restarted character of any significance was a Dunadan ranger. I found Ringil for the first time ever, and Cubragol for the first time ever -- both in the same game! Easy win? No, I kinda... well, honestly the character stopped being fun for me at around 3500'. I lost the character dump to history but the various hounds and Maia I was running into down there ended up in that character being miserable to play and I... well, kinda said "f-it" and basically played stupidly and let myself get killed.
Honestly, the problem was I had been playing the ranger too much like a Warrior, just making use of the "quality of life" spells like Mapping and Stone to mud. And, if I'm gonna play that way, might as well just be a warrior and get all the benefits of it.
And so I did. I slow-balled my ranger pretty severely, going through each level multiple times before going down to the next. The Warrior i played more aggressively, making frequent use of Deep Descent until I got down to 2500 feet, hanging out at depth ranges for a while (particularly to stat-max at about 1650-1900'). From about 2500-4200 or so was more of a steady decline -- clearing most levels but absolutely being willing to "nope" out of there if it got hairy. From about 4200 downward I shifted mindset to pure unique-hunting. Honestly after the late 3000s the levels themselves didn't get much harder, except in that more dangerous uniques came up (and I made *sure* to kill them, not wanting Sauron or Morgy to summon them).
Some bits of good luck:
- The Q...whatever Emperor Quylthulg dude showed up in a crevice in a corridor, so I was fairly easily able to get right up to him while staying out his LOS until I was right up against him, at which point I could just bash him dead.
- The War Hammer of Aule is a hell of a weapon.
- At some point I escaped with... 2 out of 1202 HP
. One fewer hitpoint and the difference between a Life potion and *Healing* potion would have mattered 
- Twice I tried to get miserly and use a rod of Healing against Morgy. Both failed, and the luck is I didn't die (I had 700+ HP left for both attempts). I shouldn't have been so miserly though.
Things I like about new angband:
- Rune system is way better than the old system of having to ID every freaking thing, and made a Warrior's life a lot more playable IMO.
- Speed system is way better in that I'm not stuck waiting around for +10 speed to come from one item. In the few characters I've had it was pretty easy to cobble together +10 or so from a few items that gave +3 or so speed.
- A lot fewer useless items. I mean, there was stuff that was useless to my particular character but not a whole lot in the game where I was ok "ok this just shouldn't exist".
- AC actually started mattering to me late game, to the point where I was sacrificing resists and even a small amount of speed for it. I had a kit with about 150 AC, +26 or so base speed, and every resist (except stunning), yet found that I was starting to get shredded in melee. Giving up Shards + 2-3 speed points for about 70+ extra AC proved to be a huge deal for me.
- Exception: throwing items. I'm not sure how throwing weapons -- except at the *extreme* high end -- would be worth the inventory slot for me if they're not going in the quiver.
Play tip that was probably true even in old Angband but I'd forgotten about:
- ESP + Mapping (better yet, Arkenstone) covers a *lot* of sins. Once I got Thranduil (later, Nenya) I probably should have optimized more for swappability and less to try to fix on one set of equipment that tried to handle everything by itself. I did a bit of this by carrying both Amulet of Weaponmastery and Sustenance, using the former most of the time and swapping to the latter for dexterity reducers, but I could have done this more aggressively, I think.
Random thoughts on inventory management:
- I saved Rune of Protection scrolls for use against Morgy, ended up not needing them.
- Same with Life potions. I must have used one along the way (I had 10 at some point) but can't remember when. I don't *think* I used them against Morgy, just using *Healing* ones instead.
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