High-Elf Rogue newbie

[debo]

Any advice on how to kill the emperor Q with the unpronounceable name? I've tried to approach him twice now by tunneling up behind him, and all of a sudden I'm buried in uniques and he teleports away. I don't really have any inkling of how to fight him if he won't chase me into a tunnel. The best I can come up with is killing all of the other uniques first and pray that he doesn't summon ancient dragons :P

Also, aren't rings of acid/lightning/etc supposed to give you an off-weapon brand? I've found lots of these since I hit dlvl 70, and all they seem to do is give me resistance to the element in question, and some kind of activation attack. Pretty lame if you ask me.

I'm on dlvl 84 now, and it's pretty rare that I run into something that I can't handle / run away from. I'm selective about my battles -- I run from most things that seem even the slightest bit chancy. I guess my tentative plan is to kill the rest of the uniques before trying to fight Sauron or Morgoth, but that could take forever :/

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=11936

[buzzkill]

You can always beat him to death with a hockey stick. That still works doesn't it? It's cheesy, but no more so than his own tactics. Summon and the teleport away, who does that anymore?

[Timo Pietilä]

Also, aren't rings of acid/lightning/etc supposed to give you an off-weapon brand?

No. Not anymore and not before game became too easy. That was short transitional mistake to game balance.

[debo]

No. Not anymore and not before game became too easy. That was short transitional mistake to game balance.

Well, they may have been overpowered when they gave the brand, but now they seem to be utterly useless -- unless they were to drop with reasonably frequency on dlvl 10, I can't see anyone ever doing anything with these besides squelching them?

[Timo Pietilä]

Well, they may have been overpowered when they gave the brand, but now they seem to be utterly useless -- unless they were to drop with reasonably frequency on dlvl 10, I can't see anyone ever doing anything with these besides squelching them?

They activate for resist. That's not that bad, but you are correct that sacrificing ring slot or even inventory slot for swap isn't usually worth that.

They either need small boost or alternatively they could be removed from game.

I prefer removal.

[debo]

I just found Feanor!!!!

[Max Stats]

I just found Feanor!!!!

Was he hiding under your bed?

[debo]

Under a nether vortex, actually.

The funny thing is that I was just about to descend a staircase b/c of the level feeling. I thought, well, let me just go see what that sword up there on the floor is... killed the nether vortex on the way there, found the boots!

The sword that drew me there was a crappy magical broadsword

[debo]

My bad, it was the dragon standing in front of the vortex that had the boots. Whatever

Finally starting to feel like I have an endgame character. The Tarrasque went down like a sick puppy. I quaffed a few normal healing potions, and that was it. It helped that I had a Weaponmastery amulet as a swap for +disenchantment.

I've never fought Sauron or Morgoth before, but I feel like I could take either of them right now. I've been going level-by-level, and I'm at dlvl 93 now. Won't be long until I run into them, either way...

Does *Destruction* kill uniques? Can I use it to clear the air when Sauron or Morgoth summon them? I'm getting tired of waiting for the rest of the uniques to come to the party so that I can pre-kill them.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=11936

[Derakon]

It doesn't kill them, but it does remove them from the level. Difference being that they can still come back (including via summoning). But yes, Destruction is very handy for getting rid of summons. Just make certain that Sauron/Morgoth aren't in the area of effect or you'll have to start the fight over.

[debo]

Hmmn. I'll have to do a practice run on some poor innocents then -- both to figure out the range of the spell, and to distinguish the difference between *Destruction* and Mass Banishment

[Derakon]

Mass Banishment doesn't affect uniques and doesn't tear up the terrain, but it does hurt you a bit for each monster removed. I believe it has the same range as Destruction, though, which should be about 20 tiles.

[Timo Pietilä]

Mass Banishment doesn't affect uniques and doesn't tear up the terrain, but it does hurt you a bit for each monster removed. I believe it has the same range as Destruction, though, which should be about 20 tiles.

It also doesn't remove items, destruction does.

[debo]

Well, this is it... I'm on lvl 99. Time to tackle Sauron...

Any general advice would be appreciated

My basic plan is to dig one of those diagonal tunnels, power up, and then rearrange his face. I've got a bunch of healing saved, so hopefully that will help.

If his summons get out of hand, I'm just going to TO him and pull the pin on a destruction scroll

[debo]

This is starting to get tiresome. I don't know how this could be changed for the better, but so many of the endgame enemies have the same gimmicks (manastorm, massive rare-breaths, drain charges). Sauron was just more of the same, with higher damage dice and a bit more HP.

He manastormed me about 9 times, and summoned Vecna. I spanked him, TO'ed Vecna, and got out. Hopefully Morgoth will be a bit more interesting.

I'm curious as to how people actually engage Sauron or Morgoth with ranged weapons. If he summons and I want to use *Destruction* to clear the summons but not Morgoth himself, I'd have to run back quite a few steps, no? (I'm still using Short Bow of Amras -- range is crummy.) That whole time, Morgoth and the summons would be slinging manastorms, breaths, etc at me. Sounds fun

I guess I could create doors and use them as cover?

Or I could try to TO Morgoth and then use *Destruction*.

Anyhow, I'll probably just bring down all my consumables for the Morgoth fight do it the old-fashioned way -- dig tunnel, buff, wail on monster.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=11936