What resistances are actually needed to survive against Morgoth?

[PopTart]

... nick's previous explanation of Slow casts doubt on the usefulness of 12 rods ...

how so? Nick implies that it takes 4-5 zaps to fully slow a monster down. So let's say you want to slow 2 of them down, and you don't want to be caught with all rods charging, and you want at least a couple spares in case one is destroyed

[sffp]

A big stack of phase door is super useful
as are potions of *healing*
Potions of life would be great - if you could get enough...

[Pete Mack]

Current game: got rods of detection and mapping by dl 21. Didn't find a source of TO til dl51/cl35 (rod), later supplemented by Trident of Ulmo

[Sky]

... nick's previous explanation of Slow casts doubt on the usefulness of 12 rods ...

[PopTart]

With haste (I had 4 rods of speed) it was +24. My dwarf had 1130 max HP. I had 12 rods of slow monster which kept him very slow. All that added up to where I was getting greater than one round per every one of his rounds

It was very helpful to lure him into a tunnel, where his summoned friends often lacked line of sight. He got me down to 180 at one point, that was the minimum

[Pete Mack]

14 is a bit low. M gets rather a lot of double moves at that rate. 18 is very low risk. Note that double moves are only part of it. The effective difference in damage between 24 and 30 (hasted) speed is nearly as much as a damage ring. (Close to 10%.)

There is one exception: mage with dimension door. Morgoth is helpless in the face of this, so neither speed nor HP is important. Just a reasonable stack of !rMana and/or annihilation.

[PowerWyrm]

My unhastened speed was only +14, but I had almost 300 AC

AC won't help if Morgoth gets two turns and casts Mana Storm both times. That would be a death sentence even for a warrior if you are not at max hp with a high hp race (half-troll warrior with 1200+ hp could in theory survive back to back manastorms). The main rule before fighting Morgoth is to have +20 base speed to avoid double turns.

[PopTart]

If one day you're gonna melee Morgoth:
- everything malcontent said
- melee output against evil or against anything > at least 450 dmg / turn
- heavier weapons give more critical hits: Mace of Disruption, Scythe of Slicing and Blade of Chaos of (+2 attacks or *slay evil*) are rarely outperformed by artifacts. At least if you play with standard artifacts.
- if possible, headgear of Might. Resist stunning is very good. This is mitigated if you have boatloads of healing potions and scrolls of Phase Door.
- if you can get base speed > +20 without another ring of speed, wear a ring of damage. +13 ring of damage easily outperforms ring of speed +10 if you already have over +20 speed (hasted +30).
- use scrolls of Rune of Protection before engaging melee, and fight standing on it as long as he happens summon any heavy artillery. It does not protect against breath weapons or spells.
- any buff is obviously good. Heroism, berserk strength, prayers etc. Just activate them while he cannot see you.

Okay! I ended up beating Morgoth as a Warrior with a Trident of Wrath, which did 630 damage per round against evil creatures. I dropped all my staves to prevent energy drains. I went back to them as necessary, and almost had to bail because I ran out of Scrolls of Teleportation, which thankfully were scattered across the level!

NOTE TO SELF: you may want to stock up on SCROLLS of teleportation next time!

My unhastened speed was only +14, but I had almost 300 AC, so I took hits very well. And as with my ranger character I packed plenty of Rods of TO and Rods of Slow Monster. I ended up using these potions: about 10 critical wounds (to cure Stunning), 10 healing, 2 *healing*, 4 Life, 2 Berserk Strength. No scrolls of Rune of Protection. All resistances except Chaos and Stunning. Immunity to Fire.

Overall I'd say that Warrior was more difficult or required more forethought and regrouping than Mage or Ranger.

[PopTart]

- if you can get base speed > +20 without another ring of speed, wear a ring of damage. +13 ring of damage easily outperforms ring of speed +10 if you already have over +20 speed (hasted +30).

I just did a very similar calculation (finally leveling up my warrior to level 45) and you're absolutely right

[Pete Mack]

Best I've had is +2 attacks MoD with off-weapon Slay Evil from Paladin spell. The randart uber-weapons are just too rare to rely on.

[Ed_47569]

Randarts have MASSIVELY superior damage compared to standarts, because as explained previously .. they are random. You only need to find 1 that has rolled outside the norm and can easily do 700 damage vs evil. MODs will do 550 at most.

Just got 690+ with my MoD of *Slay Evil* - no extra blows or anything too fancy.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=25571

[PowerWyrm]

His spells are: mana storms, brain smashing, mana bolts, summoning greater demons and greater undead (which may do any kind of damage), and of course summoning uniques. And he hits to shatter. So things like sound resistance, electricity immunity, etc., are not strictly necessary, right? Seems like the focus should be on speed and maxing out HP? I'm using a ranger so I plan to barrage him with arrows. Does he have resistances of his own?

Also have big stacks of Rods of Teleport Other and Rods of Slow Monster

Don't forget he summons a lot. Bring as many resistances as you can in case you get in LOS of some nasty summons before you can discard them.

[Sky]

with warriors the biggest problem will always be that you need a amulet of Sustenance or a shield of Preservation, unless you hoarded mushrooms of vitality, because of the stat drain of morgoth's melee. And, of course, scrolls of Rune.

Randarts have MASSIVELY superior damage compared to standarts, because as explained previously .. they are random. You only need to find 1 that has rolled outside the norm and can easily do 700 damage vs evil. MODs will do 550 at most.

I think .. Morgoth has a Darkness storm, so rDark would be a must, although for some reason rDark is super-common on randarts.

[Sphara]

If one day you're gonna melee Morgoth:
- everything malcontent said
- melee output against evil or against anything > at least 450 dmg / turn
- heavier weapons give more critical hits: Mace of Disruption, Scythe of Slicing and Blade of Chaos of (+2 attacks or *slay evil*) are rarely outperformed by artifacts. At least if you play with standard artifacts.
- if possible, headgear of Might. Resist stunning is very good. This is mitigated if you have boatloads of healing potions and scrolls of Phase Door.
- if you can get base speed > +20 without another ring of speed, wear a ring of damage. +13 ring of damage easily outperforms ring of speed +10 if you already have over +20 speed (hasted +30).
- use scrolls of Rune of Protection before engaging melee, and fight standing on it as long as he happens summon any heavy artillery. It does not protect against breath weapons or spells.
- any buff is obviously good. Heroism, berserk strength, prayers etc. Just activate them while he cannot see you.

*EDIT*
This is a melee warrior way to go for me. Blackguard and other plausible melee classes may have different approach.

[PopTart]

Well done!

For my money the ranger is the easiest class to win with because it's almost always done from a distance with arrows. But then - I don't play mages much.

Thanks, I've beaten the game only two other times, both were version 4.2.x with a gnome mage. Play style was not that different from ranger, except mana is a concern.

As to your original q - I once tried to go against Morgoth without an elite build that just happened to not include Resist Fire. Of course, he summoned Gothmog AND the Tarrasque and they both breathed on me in the same turn...

That is bad luck, but now I am thinking that if you have a high enough speed bonus and plenty of teleportation charges and BASIC RESISTANCES :-P, it should be possible to beat Morgoth without having first defeated the last 5-10 uniques...