My attempt at the fists-only challenge

[StMicah]

This isn't so much an "after" adventure report, but a report on my adventure...

So, I decided to try a fists only win. After a few failed attempts (or, ahem, training runs) I have a character that is viable for the mid-late game.

Here's a few highlights so far:
Jie Yu stumbled around a bit and had some near deaths with early uniques, but he kept chugging. It helped that Yu found some slay gloves early. As well as Gorlim!

In the late 30s, however, I got a little cocky after finding Evenstar and some other equipment and decided to dive. I went a little too far and am a bit over powered (I could have used some more stat pots before the dive). Luckily when I did dive to the low 50s I found a helmet of telepathy. and could get out the path of some horrible situations. For the last 30 or 45 mins of game play, I've been trying to crawl back up a few levels to where I might be more comfortable.

Until recently I didn't have an TO options, which made climbing up a little more challenging (though not as much now). Again this is my cockiness coming through...going to play a bit more cautiously for a while.

I can't take on the dlvl 40 dragons and, for the first time?, find myself relying on the !RFire and !RCold consumables.

Thoughts/strategies/etc. are welcome. So far, this has been a learning experience since, even in ironman mode, I've never really been dependent on consumables and stockpiling to be a fighter of endurance rather than one with a big damage output.

[StMicah]

I'm back on track—I've found a speed ring, a —TO and some other decent equipment—and feel comfortable at depth. I can even clear decently sized vaults!

[StMicah]

Jie Yu made it to the low 90s and is now going after uniques, consumables, and end-game equipment. Finding speed and TO options (it was quite a while before I found a —TO and still a bit of time before I found a second and third).

I've got equipment to raise my Dex so that I am getting 6.0 rounds. I figure I won't be able to get anymore since Dex and Strength are maxed, so I am looking for an alternate source of speed—Ingwe found Cubragol when he played Ronda, which would be nice if I found it. so I can wear a second =Damage. I wouldn't mind something with immunity (especially fire) so I can stand toe to toe with Balrogs and other uniques and not lose staffs and ?Banishment scrolls. Heck, immunity to cold would be good too. Perhaps I'll see some rings of power soon.

Just no dummy moves with the powerful uniques. I'm use to manastorming from a distance or pulverizing them in a few rounds with a MoD. I suspect the right strategy is some rounds of fisticuffs and then —TO them somewhere for a second go...and so on.

EDIT: Crap—I just checked Ronda's damage output. Without wearing Gorlim, my damage output is about 115 points less. Gorlim ups my output +8, 6 times, so with it on I'll do 68 points less. So, I really need to find another non-ring source of speed or some better gloves of power.

[Carnivean]

I've got equipment to raise my Dex so that I am getting 6.0 rounds. I figure I won't be able to get anymore since Dex and Strength are maxed

6.0 is the max blows without magical aid. With randarts you might be able to find something off weapon, but standarts doesn't have any that I can remember.

[StMicah]

I've been slowly taking down uniques and finding consumables; I haven't really found much in equipment upgrade. And I'm getting tired of the grind, so I'm done for tonight. Perhaps I'll take on Sauron tomorrow sometime.

I am not close to a good enough damage output; though I am about mid 300s with Gorlim. It would be helpful to find a stronger =damage and I don't have much hope of finding the One Ring, which would be a game changer.

(And aside from the other rings of power and the One, I think I've found all artifacts that boost +dam...someone correct me if I'm wrong).

[Derakon]

Mid-300s is doable with enough consumables, assuming you're hitting the minimum speed threshold. It'll just be a long fight.

[PowerWyrm]

I am not close to a good enough damage output; though I am about mid 300s with Gorlim.

It's enough. The only problem with this char is the +17 speed which is not enough vs Morgoth. I fixed that with Feanor, but if you don't find that (and if you don't find Cubragol) you'll have to put on another Ring of Power, which will reduce damage by a good amount (unless it's the One that you find of course).

[StMicah]

If I drop excess equipment (like Razorback) at home, I'll be at +18 speed and can zap a rod or staff of speed to get close to +30 and still wear Narya. Otherwise, Narya is swapped for a +12 =Speed and I have my +30. I'll lose 12 points of damage and fire immunity, which would be ok for fighting Morgoth. However, I'd not have ESP.

I figured that later on today, I took out some remaining uniques this morning, I'd take on Sauron and scum dlvl 99 for a better =Damage and hope for Feanor or Cubragol (and to replenish consummables) before the final fight.

[Pete Mack]

Swap Nara for speed and trickery for weaponmastery, maybe. Otherwise, you can't do much better. Speed +18 is pretty brutal even for Sauron.

[StMicah]

Swap Nara for speed and trickery for weaponmastery, maybe. Otherwise, you can't do much better. Speed +18 is pretty brutal even for Sauron.

I have seen a +5, +5 amulet of weaponmastery. Is that the highest?

I can't remember exactly what my hit rate is when I remove the DEX bonus from trickery, it's either 5.5 or 5.8. If the former, the swap would mean about 0.5 less damage than not swapping (336 vs 335.5). If the latter, I pick up 17.8 damage (336 vs 353.8). One way, I have to attack Morgoth 29 times (with no misses); the other, 30 times (with no misses). By "hit" I mean "press a key".

Jesus—either way, I will have to land at least 180 punches (not counting any recover on Morgoth's part). Why did I think I this challenge was a good idea?

I'd really like to find another source of speed (feanor or cubragol) + a rod or staff so that I can use another =Damage or Ring of power. If I could wear a ring with +12 (instead of =speed) to get my damage to +68 (with Gorlim), I would have a max output of 408 damage per round. I would only have to hit Morgoth 25 times.

I'll have some time to play in a few hours. The plan to is go fight Sauron and then scum to find replenish consumables....I'll let folks know what happens.

[Pete Mack]

Losing a tiny bit of damage is vastly offset by getting more double moves vs. Sauron. There is a 10% difference between +18 (Narya) and +25 (RoS +12)

[StMicah]

Definitely! I plan to wear the =Speed in the final battles unless I find Cubragol or Feanor's boots; I'll just have to forgo Narya in that case.

[StMicah]

Just beat Sauron! I was focused on the fight and didn't bother to record any data, but it was a rather drawn out battle. Luckily, Sauron teleported a fair amount (five times) and let me (the player) rest and think before luring him back into my anti-summoning field. The plus to this was that I didn't use many ?Banish or ?MassBanish in the fight...just TO'd the summons that came into the corridor after Sauron high tailed it.

Sauron didn't leave much loot when he departed. Just, ironically, Anarion. However, I won't be using that in the next battle; gotta keep Haradrim.

And, I'm bad at maths...my earlier posts were calculated 10000 hitpoints, but alas, that's Sauron. Morgoth is twice as much. Yikes!

[StMicah]

I got lucky—found Cubragol. Since that (or Feanor's boots) was the missing piece of my kit for Morgoth, I figure it's time to finish this....last man standing, right?

I have a base speed of 27, 23 !Heal, 23 !*Heal, and 11 !Life, and a fair amount of both scrolls of banishment. However, my damage output will be either be 342 or 374: wearing Gorlim and Nenya gets 342.2, wearing Gorlim and both =Damage gets 374 but no esp. The difference is, with Nenya, I have to land 30 more punches (assuming Morgoth never recovers health).

I'm going to break for a bit and do other stuff—for one, I'd like be fresh for the long slugfest and, two, see if anyone has any final thoughts. My intuition is to don Gorlim, wearing Nenya and one +14 =damage so @ is aware of the summons.

[StMicah]

Morgoth is dead.

The fight was not as bad as I expected in part because of all the pots. I used 4 !Life, 17 !Heal, and 13 !*Heal; pretty much exhausted my ?Banish stack, and a few zaps of my heal rods after I TO'd him.

With the exception of the grind near the end for consumables and end-game equipment, this was a fun challenge but not one that I'll re-do anytime soon. I don't think I could have done this artifactless let alone egoless.