Problems, problems.

[Pete Mack]

2 perfect finds in combination for Half-Troll Paladin (or really any low-dex priest caster.)
Since I need to use a Ring of Dexterity anyway, I just took down Feagwath in about 12 turns. (The bow is one of my best store purchases ever. Found it in the weapon shop, not even the Black Market.)
Then I started mowing through a vault....

a) a Mace of Disruption of Extra Attacks (5d8) (+14,+16) <+2>
Taken from a chest found at 4950 feet (level 99)
+2 attack speed.
Slays undead.
Combat info:
7.0 blows/round.
Average damage/round: 800.3 vs. undead, and 429.2 vs. others.

b) a Short Bow of Lothlorien (x3) (+13,+12) <+5, +1>
Bought from a store
+5 dexterity.
+1 shooting power.
Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
Prevents paralysis. Sustains your life force.

...and killed the rest of the ringwraiths, summoned by the Witch-King, along with Huan, Dragluin, and the Learnaean Hydra.
The difficulty is the Witch-King dropped:
the Long Sword Ringil (4d5) (+22,+25) <+10,+1>
and, just for completeness, Ren the Unclean dropped:
a Blade of Chaos (Holy Avenger) (6d5) (+18,+18) [3] <+4>
Now I have to pick between an uber-ego weapons and, well, Ringil.

Vaults on dl 98 are so much fun! (Also a Rod of Speed showed up, which solves a LOT of problems.)
Eventually I had totry a trap door, and down I went--losing Umbar (not that I really wanted it.)

[Estie]

Nice problems to have....now youre only missing speed boots and a ring of power. The next chest probably holds Feanor

[Pete Mack]

Yeah, I tried taking on Sauron at cl 43. I got totally knocked around--mostly because I forgot how to really dig an anti-summoning tunnel, but partly because I just couldn't deal out damage with either Ringil or base speed 17. Ended up wasting a *healing* and *destruction*. Boots of Stealth really are not what I want in the endgame.
Edit: And what I mean is: the tunnel had a square open to a room. I stupidly fought Sauron there, where he summoned undead, including a Black Reaver and Elder Vampire. I had to abandon immediately after.

[Pete Mack]

Finishing off the ringwraiths as a priest-caster is always fun (assuming you have hold-life.) "Oh, you summoned your friends. Thanks for all the free EXP and loot!" Of course, it takes the right weapon, too--which is to say, an MoD ego weapon. For a paladin or priest, MoD + hold life means you can safely loot undead nests. No other class has a chance on this. (Actually, with the reduced drop, very few pits are worth exploiting anymore.)

Nice problems to have....now youre only missing speed boots and a ring of power. The next chest probably holds Feanor

[Pete Mack]

A little later on, Saruman dropped Doomcaller. I am just neck-deep in weapons that "I just have to use." I'd be a lot happier with some boots like that. Killing uniques at dl 97-99 makes for crazy drops. I should hold out for Deathwreaker. 530 damage vs. evil is good, but it'd be better without the -50 AC (I am still amazed by that post with 564 damage per round vs. all monsters that Gram made. Except for a bit more speed, or some top-notch archery, you cannot do better than that!)

[Avenger]

You ought to consider a multiplayer variant - swimming in really good items of one kind, missing something else? Sell the excess and buy what you need from a player store

Those are some pretty fantastic options you've got for weapons, though - can't complain much about that, lol.

Do you still use the dex ring after you found that lothlorien bow? I'd think you could skip it in favor of Speed now, provided you have a good one in reserve.

Edit @ below: Sorry, uniques can get trampled now? That seems... unfair.

[Pete Mack]

More madness: Maeglin was down to 3 stars, and escaped by getting trampled by a summons. SMH!

[Pete Mack]

I tried a multiplayer variant once and got smoked. I just couldn't keep up with the basic one-move-per-second schedule it had, even when there's no other player in detection range. I got swarmed by Mirkwood Spiders of all things, and lost all interest. Of course, that was a LONG while back. There are much smarter strategies for move scheduling in a game like this.

You ought to consider a multiplayer variant - swimming in really good items of one kind, missing something else? Sell the excess and buy what you need from a player store

Those are some pretty fantastic options you've got for weapons, though - can't complain much about that, lol.

Do you still use the dex ring after you found that lothlorien bow? I'd think you could skip it in favor of Speed now, provided you have a good one in reserve.

Edit @ below: Sorry, uniques can get trampled now? That seems... unfair.

[Pete Mack]

Or, you know, you can just tough it out for a while. In a vault at extreme depth , you will eventually find Boots of Speed.
You see: a Pair of Ethereal Slippers of Speed [0,+17] <+9>
Thank you so much, Ar-Pharazon the Tarnished Brass. I appreciate that more than I can say. Too bad I had to kill you to get them. (It's just so hard being Lawful Good.)

Edit: And BTW, once again, Brand Weapon is a worthless spell. It should be a low-level spell, and Enchant weapon may be high level, with the possibility of enchanting bow or ammo. Enchant armor can be high weapon, too. But Brand Weapon is only useful below around CL 40.

[Avenger]

Very nice - can't get much better then that.

I found your chardump, though, and your resistance holes make me very, very nervous. Poison, Shards, Nether, Disenchantment... I suppose it's easier to avoid threats from those in a turn based environment, but still... one offscreen drolem breath could put you down for good.

[PowerWyrm]

I tried a multiplayer variant once and got smoked. I just couldn't keep up with the basic one-move-per-second schedule it had, even when there's no other player in detection range. I got swarmed by Mirkwood Spiders of all things, and lost all interest. Of course, that was a LONG while back. There are much smarter strategies for move scheduling in a game like this.

That's because you misconfigured your server... One move per second means you have FPS set to the default "coded" value of 1. If you set it to 75 (the default value in the configuration file), it will run MUCH smoothier.

[Derakon]

(Actually, with the reduced drop, very few pits are worth exploiting anymore.)

The goal of the reduced drop rates was to keep the same rate of useful items while omitting all the crap. If I recall correctly, Angband's statistics generator was written specifically for this project so they could make certain that the items you were no longer seeing were the stuff like {good} Pikes, Scrolls of Light, Pebbles of Slay Orc, Potions of Bravery, and so on.

Which isn't to say that undead pits are worthwhile -- but that has more to do with them typically being horribly dangerous. The dungeon generator actually adds more high-value items on the floors of undead pits and zoos, specifically because players otherwise won't feel that they're worth approaching.

[Pete Mack]

I just make sure to detect often, and keep HP above 800, with a swap available. Drolems are pretty rare anyway. But yes, I'd like rPois and rNether. But not so much I am willing to give up Thorin.

Very nice - can't get much better then that.

I found your chardump, though, and your resistance holes make me very, very nervous. Poison, Shards, Nether, Disenchantment... I suppose it's easier to avoid threats from those in a turn based environment, but still... one offscreen drolem breath could put you down for good.

[Pete Mack]

Sigh. Dead, to rustiness. On the way to kill Morgoth, I decided to try the deep Balrog uniques. Didn't make an anti-summoning corridor. He summoned a Pit fiend and a whole host of others. I forgot which ones breath poison. Dead.

And killing Sauron was SO EASY. Amazing difference what a few levels and base speed 24 can do. (Base speed 17 really wasn't enough.) 530 damage per turn instead of 490 helped too.