Suicide mission?

[miyazaki]

I have been playing recently with the goal of killing the big M in less than a half-million turns. The deadline is rapidly approaching, and I am feeling less than prepared.

Here's the weird thing: I have some sick gear. Seriously. But some key gaps and a major shortage of consumables. I tried taking on Sauron with my lance and a =acid but couldn't do it. Sauron's charge-draining made melee impractical. Searched for another 100K turns until I found some arrows of acid and he went down.

My character.

It says a lot about the state of the game that I can to dlvl95 in 250K turns, then in the next 200K turns only find 7 healing potions or so while specifically looking for them in the deepest, most dangerous part of the dungeon.

When I get a free evening later this week, I am going for it!

[Fendell Orcbane]

Yep I know how you feel the only healing potions I've seen have been in vaults. The Black Market doesn't seem to be selling them either.

[fizzix]

I have been playing recently with the goal of killing the big M in less than a half-million turns. The deadline is rapidly approaching, and I am feeling less than prepared.

Here's the weird thing: I have some sick gear. Seriously. But some key gaps and a major shortage of consumables. I tried taking on Sauron with my lance and a =acid but couldn't do it. Sauron's charge-draining made melee impractical. Searched for another 100K turns until I found some arrows of acid and he went down.

My character.

It says a lot about the state of the game that I can to dlvl95 in 250K turns, then in the next 200K turns only find 7 healing potions or so while specifically looking for them in the deepest, most dangerous part of the dungeon.

When I get a free evening later this week, I am going for it!

Here's what I would do. Leave all the staves at home except banishment and destruction. When you get down, use up banishment to kill Z's, U's, L's or anything else you might not want to face. Use up the _destruction staff making a couple destruction zones to break up line of sight for Ms summonses. Bring down all your healing potions, but don't bother with the staves. You can bring the rod if you want. Personally I think you'd be fine without any !CCW and just using your heal spell, but you can bring some !CCW. However, you definitely want about 30 ?phase and you should be reading these instead of casting blink because of the zero fail.

Anytime you drop below 600 HP, phase and use non potion healing. If the area you're fighting gets crowded with summons TO Morgoth and destruct (either with scroll or by recharging your staves and using all charges) If Morgoth brings in dangerous uniques, TO them. M will come back.

I wouldn't even bother with archery because of your amazing weapon

You don't need pb1 or pb2 although you may want pb3 in case M summons weak monsters and you want to be able to attack him. Use !*healing* or !life after mana storms. You probably won't get hit with more than 4 manastorms during the battle so your consumables *should* be enough.

Good luck! You'll have the first gnome paladin winner!

[Derakon]

For reference, my last paladin winner used one *Healing* potion, no Life potions, and only a few Healing potions; most of his healing was of the "phase-away, cast Heal/chug CCW" variety. Healing potions (the base type) are not that critical because they only provide 300HP heals. It's the big heals, and the Destruct/Banish effects, that you need to have access to.

[miyazaki]

For reference, my last paladin winner used one *Healing* potion, no Life potions, and only a few Healing potions; most of his healing was of the "phase-away, cast Heal/chug CCW" variety. Healing potions (the base type) are not that critical because they only provide 300HP heals. It's the big heals, and the Destruct/Banish effects, that you need to have access to.

Done and done.

The final battle was a little hairy but not too bad. I used up my missiles of slay evil pretty quick and only took off two *'s. The rest was melee. My strategy was to try and get Morgoth to summon the remaining uniques early (Vecna, Tarrasque and all the angels remained) and then move to another corner for the battle. I had about 8 healing potions and only used them if I dropped below 550 hp. My 7 !restore mana were much more useful/valuable. Only 4 banishment options and saved them for extremely dangerous summons (pit fiends, gravity hounds, titans). There was one moment when I was facing multiple U's and mis-cast *destruct* thrice. Other than that, it went to plan.

One of the reasons I love randarts. There are no no-brainers. In the final battle, I left these boots at home because they didn't work for my strategy/final kit.

The Pair of Mithril Shod Boots of Celeb [7,+17]
-----------------------------------------------
+2 wisdom, dexterity, shooting speed.
Provides immunity to cold.
Provides resistance to lightning, confusion.
Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
Sustains strength, wisdom.
Speeds regeneration.  

When activated, it hastens you for d20+20 turns.
Takes 110 to 200 turns to recharge.

[Magnate]

One of the reasons I love randarts. There are no no-brainers.

Thank you. I think that's the best result so far.

[Timo Pietilä]

Thank you. I think that's the best result so far.

Tiny note: for this current competition randarts there are several very good items that have max depth shallower than 95. That includes one melee-weapon with +3 blows and big dice, and one item with IM_FIRE.

Also I think there are too many items with immunities. I could have all basic4 elements covered several times over.

Maybe you should revisit those depths and immunities. Otherwise it looked quite good.

[fizzix]

Tiny note: for this current competition randarts there are several very good items that have max depth shallower than 95. That includes one melee-weapon with +3 blows and big dice, and one item with IM_FIRE.

Also I think there are too many items with immunities. I could have all basic4 elements covered several times over.

Maybe you should revisit those depths and immunities. Otherwise it looked quite good.

immunities are hit and miss with randarts. Some games I have 3 or 4, some I have none. My last game had no immunities in my final kit. Just like everything else with randarts, it's random. I haven't found it to be too much different than the standart immunity set over a large enough sample size.

[Derakon]

I've played a few games with randarts now, and what I'm noticing is that randarts leave you relying on ego items much more often than standarts do, for the majority of the game until you start collecting endgame gear (and sometimes even then). If you take a look at the standart list, you have pretty good odds that a character in the 2000' range will have found at least one each of:

* Cambeleg, Cammithrim, or one of the Paur* gauntlets
* Thorin, Celegorm, or Aragorn
* Thranduil, Thengel, or Holhenneth
* Colluin, Holcolleth, Collanon, or Thorongil
* Any number of probably-somewhat-useful weapons

These are all solid, useful pieces of gear that set the character up nicely for the mid-late game. They may not show up in final loadouts but they're instrumental in letting the player get the gear that will.

In contrast, my randart characters are running around with cruddy ego-item gear well into the late game because nothing's been generated for that equipment slot that can be created earlier on. I had a priest wearing Gloves of Agility (+5) at clvl 45! Not to mention going a long time without See Invisible because the only egos it generates on are weapons and helms, both of which I needed for other purposes (weapon with telepathy, helm with a desperately-needed WIS/CON boost). In fact, at one point, my priest was running around the 4000' area with this loadout:

* Blessed Executioner's Sword (+1 WIS, telepathy)
* Heavy Crossbow of Extra Shots (+1)
* Ring of Constitution (+3)
* Ring of Constitution (+4)
* Amulet of Wisdom (+5)
* Elven Cloak of Stealth (+5)
* Gloves of Agility (+5)
* Randart helm (+4 WIS, SI, some random not-very-useful resists)
* Elvenkind armor (+3, resist confusion)
* Boots of Stealth (+3)
* Randart shield (+3 CHA, some not-very-useful resists)

So sure, late-game randarts may have the potential for overpoweredness, but getting to that point is often nontrivial!

[Zikke]

Well written, Derakon. I have had the exact same experiences with my randart games. Very few useful randarts until very late.

[miyazaki]

So sure, late-game randarts may have the potential for overpoweredness, but getting to that point is often nontrivial!

I spent the entire game without SI. There were some worrying times before I got ESP. I was contantly using a staff of sense invisible.

You can also see the armour I used. Before the lawDSM it was pseudoDSM for more than half the game. I never found anything better. I can only remember one randart armour and it was pitiful. This is another reason I like randarts. You never know if you will find better equipment. And suddenly ego items that are useless with standarts become useful because they fill a hole in your randart kit. Has anyone else ever used lawDSM before?

[Magnate]

Well written, Derakon. I have had the exact same experiences with my randart games. Very few useful randarts until very late.

Let's keep things relative - fewer randarts (than standarts) which are more useful than their competing ego items, until very late. I am quite happy about this - anything which make ego items more useful is good.

I found the 5d4 broadsword with +3 attacks that Timo mentions ... at 1450'!

Immunities are certainly more common among randarts than among standarts, because (with the notable exception of Thorin), they are only on very high-end items (although I added a couple more in the last round of standart changes). But as has been observed, some games you get to go around immune to two or three elements, others you don't see any. That's how it should be.

[miyazaki]

Let's keep things relative - fewer randarts (than standarts) which are more useful than their competing ego items, until very late. I am quite happy about this - anything which make ego items more useful is good.

I found the 5d4 broadsword with +3 attacks that Timo mentions ... at 1450'!

Immunities are certainly more common among randarts than among standarts, because (with the notable exception of Thorin), they are only on very high-end items (although I added a couple more in the last round of standart changes). But as has been observed, some games you get to go around immune to two or three elements, others you don't see any. That's how it should be.

There wasn't a single artifact that gave elec immunity in the whole set. Never saw a blue dragon pit, either, so it works out...