An Observation

[Inquisitivephysicsguy]

I was curious about what the most common class for someone to play in Angband was. So I looked at the Ladder and found:

1648 Characters on the Ladder

Mages = 460 27.9% of total pop.

Paladin = 157 9.5% of total pop.

Priest = 200 12.1% of total pop.

Ranger = 296 18% of total pop.

Rogue = 119 7.2% of total pop.

Warrior = 415 25.2% of total pop.

Do you think that these percentages are representative of the total number of players that actually play Angband?

The least common character class to play is the Rogue, do you think that this might be because Rogues are more difficult to play than the other character classes?

I know that end-game they shouldn't theoretically be any worse at destroying Morgoth than any other character class. With standard End-Game Warrior gear, any character class has the magic savvy to easily (if they're careful) win the end game.

Any thoughts?

[HallucinationMushroom]

That's very interesting data, thanks for posting it. I never would've guessed the percentage of rogues was that low. Rogues were my first favorite class to play, but I played them more as warriors with utility spells as opposed to other styles. They are also the class I recommend to people new to the game. Well, depending on time of day I might recommend warrior, but rogues give a good taste of a lot of different things Angband has to offer.

I would've guessed that paladins would be the lowest, with priests second lowest. Diablo 2 has a paladin class so maybe that is boosting paladin rates here, and D&D thieves/rogues tend to be weak imo so perhaps thats influencing their lack of popularity here. ?? Just some random thoughts.

[Slick]

My favorite has always been the Ranger. A High Elf Ranger is extremely well rounded. [And as such, levels up probably slower than any other combination.] The combination of ranged attacks from the bow, which he will get extra shots at clvl 20 and 40, and from magic, gaining all but the most powerful mage spells compliments the melee ability that ain't too shabby either. I really don't mind the slow leveling since I usually dive slowly and when I can relatively safely handle the next depth. This means that I have enough time at depth to usually find a good set of equipment realtive to depth/dangers.

[PowerDiver]

There are a couple of things inhibiting people from playing rogues.

The first is the name. They are fighter-mages, not thieves. I bet the name turns off some people.

The second problem is the 3 multiplier into the blows table. Hopefully that will change in 3.1. Why start a rogue with 2 blows when you can play a paladin with 3 blows?

Thirdly, although high-elves make great rogues, the choice is greyed out. Heck, dwarves make great rogues and that choice is greyed too.

[Lebannen]

One other thing to bear in mind when looking at these stats: wouldn't characters which die more easily be overrepresented on the ladder?

It's be interesting to run the stats again, if you could, to generate a table, showing percentages (cumulative) of levels against character types. So something like the following:
X axis: Level 0+, Level 10+, Level 20+, Level 30+, Level 40+, Level 50, **WINNER**
Y Axis: Character classes
So the "Level 0+" column would show the stats as in your first post.

Whaddyathink?

[pav]

No, relevant numbers would be if you see how many unique players tried at least one character of the given class:

+---------------+-----------------------+
| class         | count(distinct email) |
+---------------+-----------------------+
| Mage          |                   255 | 
| Paladin       |                   113 | 
| Priest        |                   148 | 
| Ranger        |                   192 | 
| Rogue         |                    86 | 
| Warrior       |                   260 | 
+---------------+-----------------------+

And your original suggestion:

+---------------+----------+------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------+
| class         | count(*) | L1_9 | L10_19 | L20_29 | L30_39 | L40_49 | L50  |
+---------------+----------+------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------+
| Mage          |      460 |   19 |     44 |    114 |    104 |     75 |  104 | 
| Paladin       |      157 |    4 |     15 |     24 |     40 |     27 |   47 | 
| Priest        |      200 |    8 |     21 |     30 |     42 |     27 |   72 | 
| Ranger        |      297 |   24 |     30 |     57 |     70 |     44 |   72 | 
| Rogue         |      120 |    7 |     17 |     29 |     21 |     16 |   30 | 
| Warrior       |      415 |   14 |     48 |    103 |     99 |     47 |  104 | 
+---------------+----------+------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------+

[Lebannen]

Ooh, thanks for those Pav.

Looking at those numbers, it appears Priests do by far the best (proportionally) in the late game, followed by Paladins. Interesting!

[Dragonboneman]

Any chance of a similar breakdown for races?

[s0be]

Here's the dump of a perl script I wrote, parsing a borg.dat with 5107 entries:

 Human
   Paladin: Ave: 9 Count: 186 
   Warrior: Ave: 16 Count: 63 
   Ranger: Ave: 13 Count: 121 
   Mage: Ave: 5 Count: 113 
   Rogue: Ave: 10 Count: 119 
   Priest: Ave: 5 Count: 87 
  Overall: Ave: 9 Count: 689

 Kobold
   Warrior: Ave: 18 Count: 76 
   Ranger: Ave: 13 Count: 123 
   Priest: Ave: 5 Count: 96 
   Rogue: Ave: 10 Count: 109 
  Overall: Ave: 11 Count: 404

 Dwarf
   Warrior: Ave: 19 Count: 73 
   Paladin: Ave: 11 Count: 177 
   Priest: Ave: 8 Count: 81 
  Overall: Ave: 12 Count: 331

 Dunadan
   Paladin: Ave: 10 Count: 193 
   Mage: Ave: 6 Count: 150 
   Warrior: Ave: 19 Count: 58 
   Ranger: Ave: 14 Count: 124 
   Priest: Ave: 4 Count: 76 
  Overall: Ave: 10 Count: 601

 Half-Elf
   Ranger: Ave: 11 Count: 119 
   Mage: Ave: 7 Count: 141 
   Warrior: Ave: 18 Count: 78 
   Paladin: Ave: 10 Count: 188 
   Priest: Ave: 5 Count: 79 
   Rogue: Ave: 11 Count: 105 
  Overall: Ave: 10 Count: 710

 Elf
   Mage: Ave: 6 Count: 129 
   Ranger: Ave: 11 Count: 111 
   Warrior: Ave: 18 Count: 56 
   Rogue: Ave: 8 Count: 132 
  Overall: Ave: 10 Count: 428

 Hobbit
   Warrior: Ave: 20 Count: 53 
   Ranger: Ave: 11 Count: 105 
   Rogue: Ave: 9 Count: 119 
  Overall: Ave: 12 Count: 277

 Half-Orc
   Warrior: Ave: 20 Count: 75 
   Priest: Ave: 6 Count: 87 
   Rogue: Ave: 11 Count: 87 
  Overall: Ave: 12 Count: 249

 High-Elf
   Mage: Ave: 6 Count: 125 
   Warrior: Ave: 17 Count: 84 
   Ranger: Ave: 13 Count: 94 
   Paladin: Ave: 15 Count: 374 
   Priest: Ave: 4 Count: 97 
  Overall: Ave: 12 Count: 774

 Gnome
   Warrior: Ave: 18 Count: 66 
   Mage: Ave: 5 Count: 142 
   Priest: Ave: 4 Count: 89 
   Rogue: Ave: 7 Count: 108 
  Overall: Ave: 7 Count: 405

 Half-Troll
   Warrior: Ave: 17 Count: 69 
   Priest: Ave: 6 Count: 98 
  Overall: Ave: 11 Count: 167

[pav]

Any chance of a similar breakdown for races?

Sure.

+------------+-----------------------+
| race       | count(distinct email) |
+------------+-----------------------+
| Dark Elf   |                     1 | 
| Dunadan    |                   157 | 
| Dwarf      |                   173 | 
| Elf        |                    45 | 
| Gnome      |                    78 | 
| Half-Elf   |                    47 | 
| Half-Orc   |                    48 | 
| Half-Troll |                    99 | 
| High-Elf   |                   262 | 
| Hobbit     |                    58 | 
| Human      |                   103 | 
| Kobold     |                    40 | 
+------------+-----------------------+

+------------+----------+------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------+
| race       | count(*) | L1_9 | L10_19 | L20_29 | L30_39 | L40_49 | L50  |
+------------+----------+------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------+
| Dark Elf   |        1 |    0 |      0 |      0 |      0 |      1 |    0 | 
| Dunadan    |      211 |   11 |     20 |     32 |     56 |     30 |   62 | 
| Dwarf      |      241 |    4 |     26 |     44 |     59 |     28 |   80 | 
| Elf        |       56 |    6 |      5 |     17 |     13 |      6 |    9 | 
| Gnome      |       98 |    4 |      8 |     11 |     23 |     25 |   27 | 
| Half-Elf   |       75 |    8 |      9 |     20 |     15 |      9 |   14 | 
| Half-Orc   |       67 |    2 |     13 |     15 |     15 |     11 |   11 | 
| Half-Troll |      139 |    2 |     17 |     40 |     31 |     15 |   34 | 
| High-Elf   |      468 |   10 |     47 |    107 |    121 |     76 |  107 | 
| Hobbit     |       91 |    6 |     13 |     22 |      7 |      7 |   36 | 
| Human      |      134 |   15 |     15 |     29 |     21 |     21 |   33 | 
| Kobold     |       69 |    8 |      2 |     21 |     15 |      7 |   16 | 
+------------+----------+------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------+

I think that solitary dark elf is from early DaJangband days.

[Dragonboneman]

So High Elf is the most popular race, no surprises there since they are a great choice for either mage or ranger. I feel somewhat privileged to have a Kobold Rogue Winner - not many of them about. There should be more, really. Starting with RPoison is a huge benefit.