Morgoth goes down in the very first round!

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Galadriel, the High-Elven Priestess vs. Morgoth, Lord of Darkness

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=17682

Galadriel struggled to improve her hit point position, but never found the big contributors of Elros or Thorin. She defeated Sauron at Cl46 with just 776 hp. Soon thereafter, she killed the Mouth of Sauron and Feagwath, the Undead Sorcerer, whereupon Feagwath dropped Deathwreaker!

Armed with this fabulous weapon, Galadriel began hunting down uniques. Gorbag, Maeglin, Hoarmurath of Dir, Vecna, the Emperor Lich, Qlzqqlzuup, the Emperor Quylthulg, Arien, Maia of the Sun, Radagast the Brown, Mim, Betrayer of Turin, Cantoras the Skeletal Lord, and Osse, Herald of Ulmo all fell to Deathwreaker.

Despite sweeping so many uniques after her battle with Sauron, Galadriel was only up to Cl48 with only 789 hp. High-Elves gain experience so slowly (and her hit point rolls must have been pathetic). Nonetheless, she decided to attack Morgoth out of sheer boredom!

Wielding Sting when she arrived at Dl100, Galadriel cast Clairvoyance and saw a skull room.“What are the chances Morgoth is stuck in that skull vault,” she thought.

Sure enough, after stealthily and swiftly working her way across the dungeon to the skull room, Galadriel spied Morgoth. She never found her own Ring of Power, but Gandalf kindly loaned her his Ring of Power. So with Narya, Power Dragon Scale Mail, Deathwreaker, Belthronding and Holy Might Arrows, Galadriel worked her way into the nose of the skull. Perfect position to take on the Big Boss! He had to stand right in front of her and go toe to toe.

Standing on a Glyph of Warding, Galadriel donned Deathwreaker and buffed up just in time to take on Morgoth in the title bout.

Round 1 Compubox Numbers

Morgoth:

Summon servants 3; Summon ringwraiths 1; Summon ancient dragons 1; Summon fiends of darkness 1;Psionic Blast 3; Ball of nether 1; Bolt of raw magic 2; Storm of raw magic 3;

Blows-- 13 hits, 16 misses; 6 touches; earthquakes 3; break RoP 7;


Galadriel:

Seeker Arrows of Holy Might (4d4) (+23,+24) 19 hits, 8 misses; Mithril Arrows of Holy Might (3d4) (+23,+26) 17 hits, 8 misses;

Blows-- 53 hits, 14 critical hits, 30 misses;

?Rune of Protection 1, ?Banishment 1; ?Mass Banishment 1; !Healing 3; !*Healing* 6; !Restore Mana 2
TO Huan, Wolf Hound of the Valar; earthquake crushes Lagduf

[desstorm]

congratz!

So you beat him to death! No orbs? What's the damage of an orb at lvl 48?

[Derakon]

congratz!

So you beat him to death! No orbs? What's the damage of an orb at lvl 48?

Dim memory says it's around 200 vs. evil. Nothing particularly amazing, but when you don't have uber-weapons as a priest your offensive options can be somewhat limited. A weapon that nominally deals 350 damage/round on average is going to do a lot less due to missing, while orb is guaranteed and ranged.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

The Holy Might Arrows fired from Belthronding were 587 and 583 versus evil, if I remember correctly. (If only Galadriel had been a ranger the damage would have been incredible!).

Deathwreaker was 537 vs evil. (In the hands of a warrior damage output would have been amazing on a whole other level.)

Orb of Destruction was far less inspiring. I don't remember my exact calculation, but Derakon has it about right.

In the situation, Galadriel had a perfect set up. Morgoth was trapped in the left eye socket of the skull room as she approached from the north-west. By being fast (+40 speed when hasted with a !Speed), she was able to swing down and around and get through the stone wall into the nose before Morgoth descended. Once there, she stood on a glyph of warding and Morgoth had nowhere to go. The two fighters were toe-to-toe for the entire battle. No ranged attack, but reading one ?Rune of Protection and then casting Glyph of Warding any time Morgoth broke through helped limit the Dark Lord's melee damage. His spell damage was easily dealt with by healing and his summons were limited in their access. He even managed to crush Lagduf under falling ceiling stones. Huan, a Greater Balrog, and a Nightwalker were his most dangerous summons and they were swiftly teleported away. Even with really low hit points, Galadriel couldn't have asked for a much better setup.

[Timo Pietilä]

In the situation, Galadriel had a perfect set up. Morgoth was trapped in the left eye socket of the skull room as she approached from the north-west.

....

He even managed to crush Lagduf under falling ceiling stones.

There is a risk in fighting Morgoth in permanent wall vaults. That crushing can happen to you if you get unlucky. Usually doesn't, but it is possible.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

There is a risk in fighting Morgoth in permanent wall vaults. That crushing can happen to you if you get unlucky. Usually doesn't, but it is possible.

Crushing is always a possibility when fighting Morgoth. Sometimes @ can "nimbly dodge" the falling debris, but not always. Yes, the risk is greater surrounded by permanent walls because there's no where to dodge. With plenty of healing in the form of potions and mana, I wasn't so concerned about that. Lagduf was crushed out of existence (well removed from the level more likely), I assume because his hp's were low. I found the risk of a "crushing" blow far outweighed by the benefits of Morgoth's limited summons and movement.

[Thraalbee]

I won the final battle in a perfect spot in a vault once as a priest, it almost felt like cheating. Nowadays I prefer a destructed area along one edge. not sure that is optimal but it feels more flexible

[Derakon]

I head for a corner and destruct it, on the theory that monsters that I teleport away are more likely to end up a long distance from me that way.

[Timo Pietilä]

Crushing is always a possibility when fighting Morgoth. Sometimes @ can "nimbly dodge" the falling debris, but not always. Yes, the risk is greater surrounded by permanent walls because there's no where to dodge. With plenty of healing in the form of potions and mana, I wasn't so concerned about that. Lagduf was crushed out of existence (well removed from the level more likely), I assume because his hp's were low. I found the risk of a "crushing" blow far outweighed by the benefits of Morgoth's limited summons and movement.

AFAIK low HP isn't requirement for death by "embedded in stone". If you don't have free space to where to dodge you die, and same applies to monsters. That's the risk. Game tries hard to avoid that from happening, but with permanent walls next to you it certainly is possibility.

I think any space already occupied by monster is no-go for dodging and permanent walls are other no-go. You need to have granite or empty space next to you at some direction in order to avoid that. When crushing happens you then get moved to that "free" spot.

OTOH it definitely does make endgame easier and risk is low especially if you use runes to prevent earthquakes.

I think monsters that have PASS_WALL or EAT_WALL cannot be crushed. Any other creature can deleted by earthquake. I sometimes used that to get rid of something very nasty in CGV. Priests get earthquake very early. Problem is that items don't get save, so they tend to go first, and artifacts prevent crushing completely, so if monster is standing above artifact it is safe.

This might have been changed in late versions, I haven't checked the code.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

.... If you don't have free space to where to dodge you die, and same applies to monsters. That's the risk. Game tries hard to avoid that from happening, but with permanent walls next to you it certainly is possibility.
....

I don't believe that is correct. What I've experienced is that when @ fails to nimbly dodge the falling debris, @ takes damage from the falling ceiling. When Morgoth strikes and produces an earthquake, there is 1) some chance that the tile @ is standing on will be one with a falling ceiling, then there is 2) another chance whether or not @ will be able to dodge such falling debris. Even playing in an open room, @ can and often does end up taking damage from the earthquake debris by failing to nimbly dodge. Playing next to permanent walls has no effect on chance #1, but certainly increases the risks of chance #2. Nonetheless, being caught by falling debris is not an "instant death" no more than a mana storm (or a centipede bite, for that matter) if @ has sufficient h.p.'s to survive.

[Timo Pietilä]

I don't believe that is correct. What I've experienced is that when @ fails to nimbly dodge the falling debris, @ takes damage from the falling ceiling.

I have died to that, so it definitely was possible. Might not be possible anymore.

When that crushing happens you move, even at mid-sequence of monster attacks. If there is no place to go you die. That's what happened to me.

[EDIT] checked the code, and now if there is no safe spots you simply get extra 300 points of damage.

...it might have been that I got double-earthquake because no space to move with extra 600 points of damage. Can't recall anymore.

[Derakon]

I looked at the code for this once. As I recall, you get a DEX save for each open (non-wall non-enemy) adjacent tile. If you pass a save you move to that tile and take no damage. If you fail all of those saves then you remain in place and take something like 400 additional damage, plus since you're still there Morgoth gets to finish his melee attacks.

Morgoth is, I believe, the only enemy in the game with both summoning spells and a shatter attack; this combination could easily lead players to try to fight him in an antisummoning corridor (or an approximation thereof, anyway, given his tunneling ability), which is unusually dangerous due to the lack of tiles to dodge to.

[AnonymousHero]

I have died to that, so it definitely was possible. Might not be possible anymore.

When that crushing happens you move, even at mid-sequence of monster attacks. If there is no place to go you die. That's what happened to me.

I've died from it too, but it was definitely from too much damage in one round. There was no insta-death type effect.

[Cold_Heart]

congratz!

So you beat him to death! No orbs? What's the damage of an orb at lvl 48?

At 50 it's 75 +3d6 ( x2 vs evil = 156-186), so at 48 it's probably something like 71+3d6 or 73+3d6

[Timo Pietilä]

At 50 it's 75 +3d6 ( x2 vs evil = 156-186), so at 48 it's probably something like 71+3d6 or 73+3d6

(1.5 * clvl + 3d6) * 2 against evil. At clvl 48 it would be (72 + 3d6) * 2 = 150 - 180.

Note that calc is different with paladin. Paladin Orb is weaker even that spell is same, and IIRC it also has smaller radius at higher levels.

Don't remember how much weaker, I rarely play paladins, they are boring IMO.