Fenrir's Thread

[Fenrir]

A recent NetHack-winner ventures into the true merciless territory of Angband...

The first twenty-or-so attempts are not pretty... but after much dying, Fenrir stops playing half troll warriors and tries out rangers.

The second ranger attempt, a human ranger, is currently doing very well:

-- Bullroarer dropped some artifact gauntlets. (Pauraegen)

-- Smeagol dropped some artifact gauntlets. (Paurhach)

-- Got a defender weapon.

-- Found the metal cap of Thengel.

-- Found the phial.

-- Found boots of speed (+6)

So Fenrir is currently running around '2100, at level 32 and with nearly everything maxed.

[Nile]

Boots of speed are very rare - you are fortunate! Make sure to get poison resist, if you don't have it already.

[Bandobras]

Hmm, a ranger? And you don't mention your beloved bow? Ha, those humans, no appreciation for woodcraft...

[Fenrir]

Oh yes, I had forgotten!

-- Got a superb feeling and found Green dragon scale mail.

Got free action via the ring, also.

My bow is +9 +9 and an unique dwarf almost made me scream when he disenchanted it all the way back to +3 when I was careless



I now understand why everyone hates the hounds. It has happened to me 983246 times in this same game that I go down the > and there's a huge pack of inertia/gravity hounds that attacks me in the first turn and get me down to 4 hp before I get a move.

But I plain just _refuse_ to get any more "It breathes. You die." Yay for teleport staves and levelport scrolls!

[Zikke]

Nick made FA so that the player always gets the first turn when going up or down stairs. That's a feature that, in my opinion, should be implemented in V.

[Fenrir]

Getting the first turn would really decrease the number of "it breathes. You die"



-- A troll dropped a suspicious 2d4 dagger, turned out ot be Nimthanc.

-- Found another suspicious 2d4 dagger in the next level.

I'd get two blows with any of these, but I can't change my defender weapon, I need all these resists.

-- Found elvenkind armor.

Still not willing to swap my green dragon scale mail due to poison res.

The defender weapon's resist turned out to be paralysis, so I left my ring at home. I wish I hadn't sold that ring of accuracy! I just can't seem to hit anything anymore (even though my arrows are +7 to hit).

A big scare with a demonologist who summoned a death quasit that summoned vroks and then erynis and so on. I teleported and landed right in front of medusa, who immediately surrounded me with hydras and had to levelport out of there with minimal hp.

A gray 'e' disenchanted my bow again. Also, there was another big scare with a master dread and a room full of dreads and a shade and patriarch. Aren't 'G's detected with detect monsters? I will need to carry a staff of detect evil after that...

Got a superb feeling, and there was a huge, HUGE, vault full of Wyrms of Power. I thought I had a chance to snatch that black dragon scale mail and the longbow before something killed me (with the help of my three wands of teleport away), but I couldn't even get inside the vault to start with!


Thinking about it, it was good I couldn't get inside of that vault. Even though believe me, I tried.

[PowerDiver]

The defender weapon's resist turned out to be paralysis

Defenders always resist paralysis among other abilities. The "hidden power" on a defender is a random sustain.

[Nile]

Aren't 'G's detected with detect monsters? I will need to carry a staff of detect evil after that...

'G's are invisible, so you will need to use detect invisible to see them (third book, spell g). Always mcg after mab.

[Zikke]

Always mcg after mab.

Sounds like a good T-shirt ^_^

[Donald Jonker]

Sounds like a good T-shirt ^_^

...with obscure shakespearean/shellyan overtones :P

[Fenrir]

Bah. From a while ago everything is just shrugging off my arrows. Fenrir is offended!

Being the dragon slayer I am, I've been wanting to take down one of these dragon uniques. Unfortunately, Kavlax's lightning breath scares me, (since it got me to 12 hp last time) and I predict a gravestone with my name in it if I were to battle Smaug as I am right now; so that only means one thing-- time to procrastinate around the dungeon!

I went back to dungeon level 1 and started descending with hopes of meeting one of these uniques I've missed and of that they won't just drop _yet_another_ cheap +5 +4 mace.

Defenders always resist paralysis among other abilities. The "hidden power" on a defender is a random sustain.

Oh... then I hereby declare the "The hidden powers of the Defender weapons are there to trick n00bs into wasting *ID* scrolls" line is true.

[PowerDiver]

I went back to dungeon level 1 and started descending with hopes of meeting one of these uniques I've missed and of that they won't just drop _yet_another_ cheap +5 +4 mace.

Uniques drop based in part upon dungeon depth, just like everyone else. If you want to boost your chance of better stuff, better to kill them 20 levels deeper than their native depth. Going back to dLevel 1 is just asking for cheap stuff.

[Fenrir]

Uniques drop based in part upon dungeon depth, just like everyone else. If you want to boost your chance of better stuff, better to kill them 20 levels deeper than their native depth. Going back to dLevel 1 is just asking for cheap stuff.

That explains the maces.

But I got so out-of-my depth that something nasty'd show up everytime I tried to get to the up-staircase, and I'd have to read yet another levelport scroll that would (of course) take me another level down. Pretty sad actually.

So, running past boring dungeons I go!


Say, where is a good depth for finding arrows? Good arrows that uniques won't shrug off? Or should I continue struggling to enchant some to plus something?

[Donald Jonker]

Say, where is a good depth for finding arrows? Good arrows that uniques won't shrug off? Or should I continue struggling to enchant some to plus something?

Finding good arrows tends to be something of a crapshoot, in my experience. I usually stockpile ?tohit and ?todam (lots of them) and enchant 99 arrows until i get bored.. around +5,+5. Even when uniques shrug off, though, you're still whittling them down. Just pack a whole lot of ?phase and arrows, and eventually they'll keel over.

[Fenrir]

Finding good arrows tends to be something of a crapshoot, in my experience. I usually stockpile ?tohit and ?todam (lots of them) and enchant 99 arrows until i get bored.. around +5,+5. Even when uniques shrug off, though, you're still whittling them down. Just pack a whole lot of ?phase and arrows, and eventually they'll keel over.

I think less arrows enchant quicker, though, but they're still less arrows. Anyway, yeah, that's what I'm doing-- dragging around a wagon full of arrows to fire at monsters so they eventually suffocate under them (how they all even fit into that backpack I don't know). But it stinks that they take FOREVER to drop one star and you don't get to shrug off their nether bolts.

I had a stack of 99 +7 +6 arrows and then got a pack of water hounds created in front of me... and later found an acid elemental and plasma votices... I was all "AHHHHH!!! It took more than fifty-nine scrolls to enchant these arrows!! NOOOO!!!!" Because, of course, it was the +7 +6 stack the one that had to get affected and not the cheap +0 one...

Bleh. Classic RNG... I'm starting to think the RNG is Morgorth... either that or he likes him a pretty darn lot!


Another question: what does 2 shots per turn mean? Okay, yes, sounds dumb, but... I fire at some monster with 99 arrows and the game says I have 98 left! Am I doing something wrong here? Am I magically multiplying arrows?