first game in ~7y - inventory advice?

[Gram]

Played a little Angband many years ago, then played through to a win (with almost all artifacts found) about 7 years ago.

Thought I'd play a bit again; I've forgotten much of what I knew, and a lot has changed with 4.x. Rune identify is nice; not having another way to identify consumables etc feels... less nice. Not at all sure what I think of the new class / spell system.

I was staying very shallow for a long time until finally finding some decent equipment including Nimthanc. Shortly after, I read three ?descent to get to DL30 and start looking for stat potions. I'll likely not go much deeper till I've boosted stats a lot and found e.g. high element resisting armor or such.

Inventory indecision is a rough spot and I could use some advice about what to toss and what to use. Here's the ladder link.

Staves: I started off with keeping staves of light and see invisible at home to whittle into arrows when I find the Nature Craft spellbook. But I had imagined I'd find that book before now; how hard is it to find?

I guess I should be carrying both staves of teleport in case one burns?

Monster status effect: I don't remember which of the sleep/slow/stun/etc wands/rods/staves are worth having. Not finding stuff like Teleport Other yet.

Rings: now that I found a +7speed I should probably toss most of these. But I'm having some trouble letting go.

For instance, neither the +3 digging nor the shovel make sense to keep long term; rangers get the stone to mud spell. But my int and mana pool are low enough I'm reluctant to get rid of both the shovel and the ring yet. The ring is light and an easy swap, but an identical ring was destroyed by lightning a while back and the shovel doesn't have that problem.

My dexterity is now reasonably high and I should ditch the ring of the Mouse at some point, but I would like another source of stealth. Boots of stealth would cover that well enough, but then I'd need another source for rNexus, and if I used the other artifact cloak for rNexus I'd wish for another pFear... sigh.

Any advice would be appreciated!

[fph]

You have all the stealth you need at home: wear Colannon and the boots of stealth. rNexus is nice but not essential, and so is rFear because you can shoot arrows. You can move FA to the ring or gloves slot until you find better.

As for rings, I would surely toss searching (they are very low priority for me, you surely have better), rFire/rCold, and probably also flame/ice (nice but not that great). Stun and slow monster are both good. Maybe you don't need the staff though. I would also toss the wands of wonder; you are past the depth where they are useful and an arrow is a better use of that turn.

I'd keep the shovel and ditch the ring of digging for now; you don't have weight problems.

[bughunter]

I'll let others with more recent playthroughs of rangers advise you more on the spellbook depths, prioritization of rods over staves/wands, etc., but in my experience, you don't see dungeon spellbooks drop frequently until level 40. Even then, they're pretty uncommon. I don't even remember if Rangers get two more anymore, or just one.

I assume you have a means of mapping in your spellbook, because I don't see anything in your inventory like a _Mapping. If not, get one - it makes the mid-game item grind SO much faster. And safer. (Same goes for recharging... I don't remember if Rangers get that.)

Staves - remember that the more powerful the staff, the better ammo they make. My last ranger liked to use _Starlight and _Dispel because they had little utility but made good arrows.

You have the strength to carry two _Teleport, why not? You'll need them.

As for the debuffs, trash everything except -Slow Monster. The others will stop working on anything that's a threat, if they haven't already. And Slow Monster will still combine with your speed. An advantage on speed is your best offense -AND- defense. Build it as much as you can. I love a nice stack of Rods of Slow Monster, but wands are reliable too, if you can recharge them.

You've got a lot of holes in your resistances... I can see why you're pausing at DL29 for advice. pBlnd, pConf and rPois are the ones you need the most. You may need to levelscum at DL28-29 to find them. And you're correct to prioritize stealth while you're filling those out.

Once you get them, you'll be wanting to take on scarier levels with vaults for even better equipment and XP. A lot of them require digging to get into, so you want the fastest, most reliable method - a wand or spell of Stone to Mud is the best. Until you get that, keep the one that digs faster, ring or shovel.

You've got a lot of stuff (e.g., -Wonder) in your home you won't need soon... but then, so do we all. I understand the inventory management game but the home inventory game is pointless. It either needs a) an easier way to trash/sell unwanted stuff, or b) more space. But that's another thread...

Others may have different advice, I'm still kinda new to 4.2.4, too... I was stuck at 4.2.0 for a while. Keep that in mind. But most of the above is not new wisdom.

[Estie]

What people have said; I would drop =mouse, equip =damage, Colannon, boots of stealth, gloves of FA.

As for the dungeon book, expect it when you find it and dont bother saving staves - those are plentiful and you can buy some from the shop if youre really short on arrows.

Scroll of banishment is nice but not something to hoard - carry it and use it on the next thing that bothers you, or to eliminate a threat that keeps you from looting a vault.

Definitely ignore mushrooms; maybe keep the second sight to use after a recall. Also, damage wands are not needed as a ranger as you can always use arrows.

That rod of detection is nice but I would still want a stack of detect treasure rods. Without teleport other, your best source of items is floor loot close to the staircase and the detection rod has too long a recharge time.

The good way to play is to enter a new level, detect treasures, detect monsters, check out any closeby * and/or promising prey if appropriate and leave the level before it wakes up. Sometimes a scary undead will spoil the routine in which case you might have to make your escape . This is why I like to buy all !restore life levels as a teenage ranger and carry a stack (or play as a halfling).

[Sky]

nice +7 spd ring, but woefully low on base stats. 13 INT??
just keep running DL35, juggle brawn/intellect, and get those to a decent number.
EDIT: aah yeah i keep forgetting this is NEW angband and rangers dont get TO anymore ...

[Gram]

Thank you all for the advice. I had remembered rNexus being quite essential due to stat scramble. But now I see something saying that was changed in 4.1 to a temporary effect. Still worth worrying about for a character this unbalanced, but less essential. Wearing Colannon as you all recommend does give me rNexus anyways, just at the cost of pFear.

I did another dungeon trip before getting your replies, and lucked out with a maze type vault level with nothing OOD, where Ugluk dropped the cap of Thengel. So now I have pConf and I guess I should toss my Infravision helm.

Somehow I didn't realize until just now that rangers' magic now depends on WIS, not INT as it always was before. Oops, I'd treated that as a dump stat. Thengel helps there.

Also got a rod of curing (toss?) and more stat+2 rings (probably not as much help as speed and damage, so toss?)

I don't need staves/scrolls of mapping because the Star and the ranger Sense Surroundings spell take care of that. But I'm definitely seeing what Estie is saying about the detection rod's recharge being too long, especially relative to my now-boosted speed. Unfortunately, I dropped my three treasure detection rods once I found detection, and I don't have ESP or anything. My Detect Life spell isn't a great substitute; on one of these trips, if I hadn't been ready to zap my Detection rod on arrival, I would have blundered straight into an emperor wight, and another time I avoided an undead pit.

Bughunter: looking at class.txt, mages, druids, priests, and necromancers get five books, paladins and blackguards three, rogues and rangers two. Found confirmation in class.txt that the Ranger dungeon book is native to L40+; you were right. The ranger spells are:

town book: Remove Hunger, Detect Life, Herbal Curing, Resist Poison, Stone to Mud, Sense Surroundings (map, not detection)
dungeon book: Cover Tracks (scent), Create Arrows, Haste Self, Decoy, Brand Ammo

I didn't realize Create Arrows bases quality on staff type; I'd read "staff level" as meaning "number of charges."

already got rid of: wand of wonder; rings of rFire/Cold, Flames, Ice, Digging, Searching; staves of detect invisible, light

probably drop: staves of slow monsters, wands of stun monsters?

what about rods of light or illumination? at a shallower depth I'd used rods of light a lot to kill eyes etc without using up my arrows, not so much since descending. When I played before I had the Phial most of the time (and by the time I replaced it I probably had ESP or something), so I could use the activation for visibility.

[Estie]

Rods of light are good for safe resting prior to ESP. You stand in a hallway and want to have your rest interrupted when something turns the corner, so light up that hallway and youll see when it happens.

As for illumination, personally I like it to light up rooms, but it wakes up everything inside. An argument can be made that you can traverse a dark room instead and hope that whatever you did not detect inside will stay asleep. Use at your own discretion.

[malcontent]

probably drop: staves of slow monsters, wands of stun monsters?

The staves yes, the wands maybe not.

I don't like staves of slow monster because they wake up every affected monster and that is very rarely what I want, slowed or not. Wands/Rod of slow monster I use a lot, including the final battles.

Wands of stun monster are also typical equipment for the final battles. Pretty sure it saved my bacon once when I went after Morgoth with less than 600 HP. He failed to cast a spell once - if it was Mana storm I would have been toast.

But even for Melee, damage done by stunned monsters is very very reduced (but not breath attacks) so it can come in very handy in some cases. Most monsters don't resist stunning (sound breathers normally do, so gold dragons won't be affected)

[malcontent]

But even for Melee, damage done by stunned monsters is very very reduced (but not breath attacks) so it can come in very handy in some cases. Most monsters don't resist stunning (sound breathers normally do, so gold dragons won't be affected)

Pretty sure all undead monsters cannot be stunned either, so a larger swath than I implied in the previous post, but I still like to keep wands of stun monster around, they definitely have their moments to shine.

[dhegler]

Wait... Ranger mana/magic depends on WIS now, not INT? I was thinking the same - trying to play some soon, but haven't played significantly since I won for the first time probably about 7 years ago or so as well.

Is there any list of significant changes like that anywhere without sorting through pages of changelog-like text?

[Nick]

Is there any list of significant changes like that anywhere without sorting through pages of changelog-like text?

The home page has a releases tab, which covers all the changes from version to version fairly briefly. The big changes are mostly in 4.2.0, as well as 4.1.0 if you haven't played since before then. The changes for the minor versions (4.1.1-4.1.3, 4.2.1-4.2.4) tend to be more tweaks than revolutionary changes - in particular two versions with only the last number changing should always be savefile compatible.

[Gram]

Found Nature Craft, Hithlomir, and Azaghal in a vault. Once again in the position of needing to throw away more stuff. Here's the ladder post again.

Don't often find myself using Dethanc/Nimthanc any more - usually wielding this Main Gauche of *Slay Demon* because it has ESP, then using Azaghal when I want a bit more damage (esp against dragons). Should I drop Dethanc & Nimthanc?

Which magical devices should I toss? frost bolts, fire bolts, hold monster?

[Estie]

Mushroom of clear mind - I dont stock these, especially not with a ranged character. If you you get into a situation where youre confused and in danger, use _teleportation. Otherwise use a potion.
Now you have resistance from Thengel; even if you expect to swap that for a helm of ESP in the near future, theres no need to carry those mushrooms - at the very least store them at home.

Yes, damage rods are superfluous.

Contemplation I squelch as a ranger. I drink str, dex, con swaps and if RNG decides to really dump on my wisdom, I can always unsquelch.

Yes, all *thancs and Orcrist can go.

Boots of stability - I prefer stealth and will eventually upgrade with speed, so those never see any use.

[Gram]

Thanks. Updated.

Had a 6-7 level where the monsters didn't seem to justify a 6 and the only items of note (even after unignoring) were a mushroom and scroll that turned out to be Vigor and *Remove Curse* -- and a (+0,+0) Mace of Disruption. I guess that must singlehandedly be responsible for the level feeling as it seems to be native to L80+.

As good as an ego MoD can be, it's probably not worth keeping this, right? With increased STR and DEX to get more blows, plus some scrolls of Enchant Weapon, this could be much better than it is now, but by the time all that happens I hope to find some other good weapons anyways.

Is it worth stockpiling Vigor?

Since this is the first time I've played without sticky cursed objects - what realistically likely benefit comes from *Remove Curse* now? I repurchased it from the store just to make doubly sure it doesn't affect Anguirel - and of course it doesn't, the ability to remove aggravation from artifacts would be ridiculously OP. Should I just drop the scroll?

Have four kinds of rods collecting dust at home: curing, hold monster, light, illumination. Guess I should be tossing all four.

[Estie]

It is very unlikely that the MoD will be useful - safe to ditch.

I do keep a stack of vigor at home. Time vortices are sneaky and if the vault is worth it, @ can really get messed up by protracted fights with time hounds - easy fix if you have vigor waiting at home.

Any item you find can be cursed; for example, that MoD with +2 blows. However, it is rare, so if and when it should happen, you can just store it till you find the next *remove* scroll. So yes, drop the scroll.

I find illumination useful even late in the game; however, if you are happy playing without it, by all means ditch the rods. The others you listed can all go.