Randart mage going strong

[Ugramoth]

Hello,

New member here although definitely not new to Angband. Just recently switched to randards and it's now going so exceptionally that I just wanted to share the details here:
Level 44 mage at dungeon level 63. Resist all, sustain all except wisdom, AC 211, HP 548, SP 326 speed +24. Immunity to frost always on, immunity to fire and acid available from swap items, all spellbooks. No ESP though and rBlind from Lantern of True Sight.

About to start clearing a pit with 4 bone golems, 4 Nightwings, 4 dracoliches, skull druj, eye druj + some usual creepers in it. Why bother? Well I'm feeling something very good here and only unidentified items are gauntlets and a cutlass in that pit...

[chknflyrice]

Never had a win on randarts mage without save scumming. GL m8!

[Pete Mack]

Don't you have mass banishment? No need to clear the pit with that!

[Ugramoth]

Don't you have mass banishment? No need to clear the pit with that!

Good point! Just found Kelek's one level earlier and forgot about having that option. Anyway killed the critters for EXP and gained a level Stuff in the pit turned out to be rather lame holy avenger and junk gloves

[Ugramoth]

Still going. Level 50 DL 82, resist all, sustain all and telepathy. This looks like a winner. Only minus is aggravation which comes from this:
Ring of Adamant 'Luindin' <+6>
Found lying on the floor in a pit at 3850 feet (level 77)

+6 wisdom
+6 dexterity
+6 constitution
+6 speed

Provides resistance to acid, light, nexus.
Provides protection from fear, blindness.
Cannot be harmed by lighting.
Sustains strength, intelligence, dexterity.
Feather Falling. Speeds regeneration. Prevents paralysis. Grants the ability to see invisible things. Aggravates creatures nearby.

Aggravate is not critical with telepathy+mass banishment and that +6 constitution gives me 920 HP which is not bad for a mage. It replaced +11 speed ring but my speed is still +32 and temporary +10 easily available.

Just now found a pit with Gothmog and Lungorthin in it. Nothing difficult about those 2, and so most unique monsters are now dead. I think Vecna, Tarrasque, Ancalagon and Sauron are the main one's left.

[Fiquin]

Did you win?

So how is this Uber mage doing?

[Ugramoth]

Win!

Sorry, been busy.
Yes, Morgoth is down!
It took him a while to notice me so I was able to blanket a large area with runes of protection and when he finally got to my 'Panic room' my tactic was as follows:
since I had +41 speed from items+temp speed, I was at +51 and able to do average 2 things for each 1 of his, therefore:
*He summons something, I do mass banish and hit him with mana storm
*He casts something that takes out 2/3 of my HP, I heal and hit him with mana storm
*He tries to break one of the runes, I hit him with 3-4 mana storms before he succeeds.

Was not that hard
Note that I made sure to have all strong uniques cleared out first before going to level 100. I forgot Vecna who appeared at some point during the last battle, I teleported him away and dealt with later.

[Ugramoth]

Memorable moments

Saw an amulet on the floor in a vault. Turned out to be this:

the Jewel of Erith [+30] <+2>
Found lying on the floor in a vault at 2350 feet (level 47)

+2 dexterity
Provides immunity to fire
Provides resistance to frost

Right after picking it up, I realized that Balrog of Moria is literally in the next room. (*grin*) Things did not go well for the Big B. Perhaps some day he learns to avoid mages with fire immunity.

Later, this very same wonderful item caused my worst near-death experience in the entire game:

I using amulet of ESP for telepathy at that point. Somewhere around DL 70 I found a vault with some unique Balrogs or some other fire-types in it, cast mass banishment and went for uniques with that jewel on for immunity. But then I forgot to switch back to ESP. So I was exploring the vault assuming that:
A) I have ESP
B) The vault is empty of monsters

Both assumptions turned out to be wrong when 2(!) off-screen skull druj's and a time hound that had been out of range of mass banishment started to rain the merry hell on me. Staring mouth open and thinking "where the **** did that come from?" I managed to escape though, with whopping 19 hitpoints left...