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[V, Nightlies] YAWP: Big Ugly the Half-Troll Warrior
When I posted my previous Warrior on the ladder, I said it was probably my last Warrior. At least I only said probably. 
The biggest challenge, as in many characters, was surviving the levels just after stat gain, when you have large resistance holes but start dealing with nastier monsters. OK, having gobs of HP helps a lot with this, but there are still no guarantees.
I only remember one near-YASD moment: I decided to take on the Phoenix, and I was probably strong enough to take it on; problem is that it can summon similar monsters, and one of its similar monsters is the Winged Horror. My Teleportation was all toast, and I used up all my teleport other on the first few, but some were still left. I went through at least three healing potions that I had happend to find earlier, but the nether breaths were still too much. I had some Phase Door left, but it couldn't get me out of range. I managed to end up in a corridor running away, but every step I took another breath would chip away at my HP. All right, who else knows this feeling? All you can do is sit there and watch your HP dwindle down to zero? Finally, in a moment of desperation, I checked my inventory one more time and saw that I had a couple of scrolls of *Destruction* that I was toting back to town to store up. No point saving them if you're dead, right? In a flash of light, Mr. Phoenix and all his buddies were gone, and I didn't see him again for several more levels, when I was more than prepared to extract revenge. I should have used the scroll earlier, but I normally don't rely on them so it didn't even occur to me to look for them in my inventory.
Huan was tough. I even had fire and frost immunity, but his other breaths still deal a lot of damage for a long time, even with resists, and unfortunately I was lacking light resistance. At first, I tried using arrows from a distance, but I found that with frost immunity, he begs to be engaged in melee, since all his attacks are cold based, and therefore ineffective.
Probably the one battle that a Warrior (OK, probably everyone) has a hard time preparing for is The Tarrasque. I actually planned ahead for this battle, stockpiling Arrows of Slay Animal, and decided to start carrying Potions of Resist Heat and Resist Cold at around DL80. Then I found Firestar (along with other fire immunity items later) so I figured that was even better. Finally the kicker: I found Nenya, so, having also gained resist disenchantment, I figured that I was as ready as I could be. I carried Nenya to use as a swap and started carrying part of my now-copious supply of Healing potions, waiting for the battle with the purple R. Only problem? It never came! (More or less, see below.) With every detection, I checked the monster list looking for the big battle, because I wanted to get it out of the way so it couldn't be summoned by Big M. But the RNG never cooperated, and, after dispatching Sauron on DL99, I assumed this was going to be what undid me in the big final battle. I planned to simply teleport either it or myself, depending on the situation, but assumed I was doomed to fail and then be breathed on by it while being mana-stormed at the same time (after all, I would not be wearing Nenya but only carrying it as a swap, not wanting to give up a ring of speed). Nevertheless, I recalled to town, swapped out for my final equipment and always-overdone consumable stash, and proceeded on.
Here might be a bug report: My first trip to DL100 was to one of the new "cavern" levels (the one with no rooms, just a bunch of tunnels and open spaces), and Morgoth was a no-show. Isn't he always supposed to be generated at the start of DL100? I used Detection over the whole level just to be sure, but the lack of any telltale disappearing walls told me he simply wasn't there. Oh well, one step upstairs and one back downstairs fixed all that (technically, you could say I stairscummed for Morgoth).
My second trip down, after lighting up the level with the Palantir, the first thing I saw made me take heart: There was the Tarrasque, who had been avoiding me all game, stuck in a room with its only exit blocked by a pile of rubble. Looks like no one will be summoning you! I quickly teleported myself just to get far away so you-know-who's tunneling wouldn't accidentally release it. I ran to the farthest corner of the dungeon and waited. I could already see his tunneling, so I knew this was my big moment.
Here was my plan for the final battle: I had been using Amras and, later, Belthronding along with ego arrows as my ranged weapon against everything the whole game. But stashed away at home was Umbar, my ace in the hole, along with every Slay Evil or Holy Might bolt I had come across in the game. So the idea was to soften him up with those, then switch to Cubragol, dump my charged items, read my Rune scrolls as needed, and finish him with melee, while occasionally banishing summons and/or teleporting Morgoth away to recover.
The big flaw with this plan: Umbar was working too well! As it turns out, I never had to destruct the level even once, so my unbroken bolts stayed on the floor (except a few destroyed by mana storms), and I could just teleport Morgoth away, retrieve my bolts, reload, and repeat. Every time he mana stormed me, I chose one of two stategies: If he was close by, I probably wanted to teleport him away soon anyway, so I used a regular Healing potion and then teleported him (that way I had enough HP if the first teleport failed to survive another mana storm). If he was still far away, I would just use *Healing* to get back to full HP and keep shooting. Summons were dealt with by banishing them; the only unique left for him to summon was Bill the Stone Troll, so everything else he summoned could be banished.
Once he was down to one star, I finally decided that I couldn't let all my rune scrolls go to waste, so I read one and started thwacking. It only took about three or four rounds to finish him, and he never broke that rune. And that, as they say, was that.
Wow, don't tell me you actually read that whole thing! Thanks.
The biggest challenge, as in many characters, was surviving the levels just after stat gain, when you have large resistance holes but start dealing with nastier monsters. OK, having gobs of HP helps a lot with this, but there are still no guarantees.
I only remember one near-YASD moment: I decided to take on the Phoenix, and I was probably strong enough to take it on; problem is that it can summon similar monsters, and one of its similar monsters is the Winged Horror. My Teleportation was all toast, and I used up all my teleport other on the first few, but some were still left. I went through at least three healing potions that I had happend to find earlier, but the nether breaths were still too much. I had some Phase Door left, but it couldn't get me out of range. I managed to end up in a corridor running away, but every step I took another breath would chip away at my HP. All right, who else knows this feeling? All you can do is sit there and watch your HP dwindle down to zero? Finally, in a moment of desperation, I checked my inventory one more time and saw that I had a couple of scrolls of *Destruction* that I was toting back to town to store up. No point saving them if you're dead, right? In a flash of light, Mr. Phoenix and all his buddies were gone, and I didn't see him again for several more levels, when I was more than prepared to extract revenge. I should have used the scroll earlier, but I normally don't rely on them so it didn't even occur to me to look for them in my inventory.
Huan was tough. I even had fire and frost immunity, but his other breaths still deal a lot of damage for a long time, even with resists, and unfortunately I was lacking light resistance. At first, I tried using arrows from a distance, but I found that with frost immunity, he begs to be engaged in melee, since all his attacks are cold based, and therefore ineffective.
Probably the one battle that a Warrior (OK, probably everyone) has a hard time preparing for is The Tarrasque. I actually planned ahead for this battle, stockpiling Arrows of Slay Animal, and decided to start carrying Potions of Resist Heat and Resist Cold at around DL80. Then I found Firestar (along with other fire immunity items later) so I figured that was even better. Finally the kicker: I found Nenya, so, having also gained resist disenchantment, I figured that I was as ready as I could be. I carried Nenya to use as a swap and started carrying part of my now-copious supply of Healing potions, waiting for the battle with the purple R. Only problem? It never came! (More or less, see below.) With every detection, I checked the monster list looking for the big battle, because I wanted to get it out of the way so it couldn't be summoned by Big M. But the RNG never cooperated, and, after dispatching Sauron on DL99, I assumed this was going to be what undid me in the big final battle. I planned to simply teleport either it or myself, depending on the situation, but assumed I was doomed to fail and then be breathed on by it while being mana-stormed at the same time (after all, I would not be wearing Nenya but only carrying it as a swap, not wanting to give up a ring of speed). Nevertheless, I recalled to town, swapped out for my final equipment and always-overdone consumable stash, and proceeded on.
Here might be a bug report: My first trip to DL100 was to one of the new "cavern" levels (the one with no rooms, just a bunch of tunnels and open spaces), and Morgoth was a no-show. Isn't he always supposed to be generated at the start of DL100? I used Detection over the whole level just to be sure, but the lack of any telltale disappearing walls told me he simply wasn't there. Oh well, one step upstairs and one back downstairs fixed all that (technically, you could say I stairscummed for Morgoth).
My second trip down, after lighting up the level with the Palantir, the first thing I saw made me take heart: There was the Tarrasque, who had been avoiding me all game, stuck in a room with its only exit blocked by a pile of rubble. Looks like no one will be summoning you! I quickly teleported myself just to get far away so you-know-who's tunneling wouldn't accidentally release it. I ran to the farthest corner of the dungeon and waited. I could already see his tunneling, so I knew this was my big moment.
Here was my plan for the final battle: I had been using Amras and, later, Belthronding along with ego arrows as my ranged weapon against everything the whole game. But stashed away at home was Umbar, my ace in the hole, along with every Slay Evil or Holy Might bolt I had come across in the game. So the idea was to soften him up with those, then switch to Cubragol, dump my charged items, read my Rune scrolls as needed, and finish him with melee, while occasionally banishing summons and/or teleporting Morgoth away to recover.
The big flaw with this plan: Umbar was working too well! As it turns out, I never had to destruct the level even once, so my unbroken bolts stayed on the floor (except a few destroyed by mana storms), and I could just teleport Morgoth away, retrieve my bolts, reload, and repeat. Every time he mana stormed me, I chose one of two stategies: If he was close by, I probably wanted to teleport him away soon anyway, so I used a regular Healing potion and then teleported him (that way I had enough HP if the first teleport failed to survive another mana storm). If he was still far away, I would just use *Healing* to get back to full HP and keep shooting. Summons were dealt with by banishing them; the only unique left for him to summon was Bill the Stone Troll, so everything else he summoned could be banished.
Once he was down to one star, I finally decided that I couldn't let all my rune scrolls go to waste, so I read one and started thwacking. It only took about three or four rounds to finish him, and he never broke that rune. And that, as they say, was that.
Wow, don't tell me you actually read that whole thing! Thanks.
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