YAVP - Ranger...! *shakes fist*

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  • Bowman
    Apprentice
    • Oct 2015
    • 60

    YAVP - Ranger...! *shakes fist*

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    Ugh, this class . Sure, it's *nice* to see the big average damage numbers on arrows once you have a decent bow and get to level 40, but the ammo management is such a pain. The mulch rate on arrows sucks, and even with Tenser's around to turn general store arrows into something reasonable, you end up with so many little stacks of slightly different arrows that the 9 quiver slots fill up and spill over into the rest of the inventory, which is already crunched anyway from having to dedicate 2-4 slots to quiver stacks . On top of that, ranger melee and casting are both weak, too, so you can't just ignore ranged without being gimped needlessly.

    *sigh* At least they have good stealth, so it's not too bad to avoid fights that aren't going to be worth how much ammo you're going to lose from them. Well, until you get those levels full of maiar/demon pits and graveyards and that one damned shimmering vortex in the corner of a vault that uses its only action before you kill it to wake up everything else . At least mages can just cast banishment

    Still, it would be unfair to not acknowledge that rangers are really good at killing single high priority targets. Sauron didn't do anything aside from a couple of weak undead summons. Morgoth decided to actually cast some mana storms, but even then, the only real difficulty I had with that fight was going into it with just 4 ?mass banishments. Had tons of potions, though, thanks to using a nice randart ring with cold immunity for much of the game.

    Highlights:
    Code:
    Stealth    Legendary
    This character was the first I've had get a stealth rating above Heroic.
    Code:
    the Zweihander 'Almangorn' (7d6) (+13,+14) [+5] <+3> (charging)
         Dropped by Tom the Stone Troll at 3400 feet (level 68)
         
         +3 constitution.
         Slays demons (powerfully), undead, orcs, dragons (powerfully).
         Provides resistance to lightning, frost, dark, shards.
         Cannot be harmed by acid.
         Sustains dexterity.
         
         When activated, it allows you to breathe chaos or disenchantment for 220 damage.
         Takes 714 to 1048 turns to recharge at your current speed.
         Your chance of success is 96.9%
         
         Combat info:
         5.0 blows/round.
         Average damage/round: 903 vs. demons, 619 vs. undead, 619 vs. orcs, 903 vs. dragons, and 334.5 vs. others.
    Sure, those damage values were actually about halved in reality because rangers have crap melee accuracy even with hero/berserk, but that's still some serious damage on the slays.

    Code:
    the Ring of Adamant 'Lothor' [+25] <+4>
         Found lying on the floor in a vault at 3850 feet (level 77)
         
         +4 strength.
         +4 intelligence.
         +4 wisdom.
         +4 dexterity.
         +4 constitution.
         Provides resistance to acid, lightning, frost, nether, disenchantment.
         Cannot be harmed by lightning.
         Speeds regeneration.  Grants telepathy.  
         
         When activated, it bestows upon you berserk rage, bless, and resistance.
         Takes 653 to 957 turns to recharge at your current speed.
         Your chance of success is 91.6%
    Pretty ridiculous, though I was rather lucky with randart rings in general this game:
    Code:
    the Ring of Nivrimrim <+5, +1>
         Found lying on the floor in a vault at 2350 feet (level 47)
         
         +5 intelligence.
         +5 wisdom.
         Provides immunity to frost.
         Provides resistance to poison gas, nether.
         Cannot be harmed by lightning.
         Sustains strength.
         Radius 1 light.
    I was quite happy to replace my ring of resist poison with this.
    Code:
    the Ring of Firmament 'Melemmor' <+4, +1>
         Found lying on the floor in a vault at 4800 feet (level 96)
         
         +4 strength.
         +4 intelligence.
         +4 wisdom.
         +4 dexterity.
         +4 constitution.
         Provides immunity to fire.
         Provides resistance to acid, lightning, frost, shards, nexus, chaos, disenchantment.
         Provides protection from blindness, confusion, stunning.
         Cannot be harmed by lightning.
         Sustains strength, wisdom.
         Slows your metabolism.  Speeds regeneration.  Prevents paralysis. 
         Grants telepathy.  Aggravates creatures nearby.  
         Radius 1 light.
    I didn't actually use this last one because aggravates is a horrible modifier for a character that relies on stealth, but still, everything else...
    Code:
    7 Mithril Arrows of Acid (3d4) (+14,+14) {@f1}
         Branded with acid.
         Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
         
         Combat info:
         Hits targets up to 140 feet away.
         Average damage/round: 901.5 vs. creatures not resistant to acid, and 515.1 vs. others.
         35% chance of breaking upon contact.
    Sauron REALLY didn't enjoy being held back by a rune of protection
    Code:
    the Leather Shield 'Umelin' [8,+11] <+3>
         Dropped by Medusa, the Gorgon at 2400 feet (level 48)
         
         +3 constitution.
         Provides resistance to acid, lightning, frost, dark.
         Provides protection from confusion.
         Cannot be harmed by acid.
         Grants telepathy.
    I think this is the first time I've seen ESP on a shield.
    Code:
        145766   4450'  Killed Maeglin, the Traitor of Gondolin
        145809   4450'  Killed Mughash the Kobold Lord
        145967   4450'  Killed The Mouth of Sauron
    Mughash was this character's requisite "hilariously out of depth unique".
    Code:
        156703   4900'  Killed Adunaphel the Quiet
    Poor Adunaphel. You almost survived. You should've taken a page from Vecna's strategy and just spawned on the far end of dl 100.
  • HugoVirtuoso
    Veteran
    • Jan 2012
    • 1237

    #2
    Major props on the magnificent win
    My best try at PosChengband 7.0.0's nightmare-mode on Angband.live:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwAR0WOphUA

    If I'm offline I'm probably in the middle of maintaining Gentoo or something-Linux or other.

    As of February 18th, 2022, my YouTube username is MidgardVirtuoso

    Comment

    • Bowman
      Apprentice
      • Oct 2015
      • 60

      #3
      Thanks. It was fun overall, despite my complaints, but ranger really didn't suit me well.

      Comment

      • Estie
        Veteran
        • Apr 2008
        • 2347

        #4
        Congrats on the win. Ranger is the class that really drives home the point about killing selectively.

        I am surprised about your extra might bow; its rare to not find at least a good Lothlorien. Admittedly good artifact bows are extremely rare: many randart sets have none to start with, and even if there is one, its unlikely to get found. Whereas a melee weapon like your sword isnt out of the ordinary, with like 50 getting generated (compared to only about 5 or so launchers).

        Comment

        • Bowman
          Apprentice
          • Oct 2015
          • 60

          #5
          That was probably just bad luck. I had 2 or 3 bows of lothlorien drop, but they were all short bows with lower damage than the long bow of extra might. There was a randart bow that came close IIRC, but even that was a bit weaker and had no other worthwhile properties.

          Comment

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