Warrior

[ConnorMcLaud]

Hi guys,
I'm a newbie to the Angband and I like it a lot.
But unfortunately I die a lot. It is very annoying to play 8-10 hours running and die then start new game and die again.
There is my current character: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=8498
I usually die between dl25 an dl35. Sometimes due lack of FA or SI. Sometimes some powerful uniques slay me. But result always the same.
In my current game I dived quickly to dl21 and stopped. I really afraid of paralyzing creatures deeper.
As for now I get every single item on the floor of dl21 then recall to the town in hope to find some FA item. Then recall to dl21 again.

Can you get me some advices how to survive deeper?
Maybe my inventory lack of some useful items?
Maybe you can give me some useful links about warrior playing?

Thanks in advance.

[Pete Mack]

1. Try to get to 1500' in much less time. 1/2 hour is possible; 1-2 hours is feasible for a newbie, if you play with the strategy in mind.

2. The issue isn't Free Action vs Uniques, etc, it's deciding what to fight. Angband is NOT a FPS game. You want to avoid a LOT of monsters, either because they are dangerous or annoying or just not worth killing. At the same time, some monsters are worth going out of your way to kill.

Corresponding to this, you need to carry:
An escape. Staffs of Teleportation are pretty much a necessity for a newbie, in case you get confused or blinded and can't get away some other way.
Scrolls of Teleport Level and *Destruction* are critical later on, because they let you escape with minimal to no chance of coming down next to an awake monster who then kills you.
Scrolls of Teleportation are also pretty good: 0% fail rate, and cheaper than the Staff.

You shouldn't rely too much on !CCW for healing; more for curing stunning, cuts, confusion and blindness. If the monsters are really hurting you, it's generally a sign that you should be running.

3. Rely on archery, and carry ?Phase. In the early game, archery is almost always needed for killing most uniques and other tough monsters.

4. Remember to run away BEFORE you start fighting with an overly dangerous foe, not when you are down at 30% HP. You shouldn't be fighting in that case.

5. If you are playing without Free Action, you need 3 things:
* A form of monster detection. (For a warrior this means _dEvil in the early game.)
* A way to avoid getting too close to the monsters you fail to detect. This means Rods of Light and, for a warrior, Rods Illumination or the Phial. These can be considered poor man's ES.P
* A memorized list of paralyzers before 1500':
Floating Eye
Homonculus
Gorgimaera (NOT EVIL)
Carrion Crawler (NOT EVIL)
Basilisk (NOT EVIL, Fast!)
Ghoul (cold blooded; infravision doesn't help)
Ghast (Fast, cold blooded, and has the HOLD spell. Avoid at all cost.)

There are monsters with the HOLD spell, who can be dangerous too. But except for the Ogre Shaman, you don't have to avoid them so completely.

6. Between 1000' and 1500', the most important resource you should be looking for is the stairs and trap doors down. The rewards in this region are just not worth the aggravations, risks, and effort. (The same holds later in the game, from around 2500' to 4000'.)

[ConnorMcLaud]

Thanks a lot for great advices.

Try to get to 1500' in much less time.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=8498

I started crazy dive and now I am at 1500'. What changes to game strategy I should make? And fortunately I found Dwarwen armor and Morning Star of Westernesse that gives me FA. I suppose that I don't even more need _dEvil, rods of light etc.?

Angband is NOT a FPS game. You want to avoid a LOT of monsters

Now I'm trying to avoid any fight except single monster blocking the way or set of snagas/orcs and novice paladins/mages that give nice drops.

[Dragonboneman]

Since you're fairly new to the game, I'd suggest you park yourself at 1500' for a while and try to get a few more resistances. Always have means of detecting nasty enemies and escaping from them. Beware blindness and confusion as these can screw up your escape plans.

Edit: If you feel comfortable at that depth, by all means go down a level or two. Just be aware that the difficulty ramps up noticeably in the 2000'-2500' range.

[Pete Mack]

Thanks a lot for great advices.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=8498

I started crazy dive and now I am at 1500'. What changes to game strategy I should make? And fortunately I found Dwarwen armor and Morning Star of Westernesse that gives me FA. I suppose that I don't even more need _dEvil, rods of light etc.?

I mostly use rods of light until I get ESP. I just don't like getting surprised in hallways. You can do without _dEvil until ~2200', but even before that, it's useful for finding monsters worth killing. After 1500', Detect Treasure is very useful to find stat potions and other good stuff. Exploring the whole dungeon is dangerous.

[ConnorMcLaud]

Thanks. All of you help a lot. This is my best game ever.

Since you're fairly new to the game, I'd suggest you park yourself at 1500' for a while and try to get a few more resistances

My character:

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=8498

Now I collect some resistances. Should I dive deeper? How deep should I?
Do you know something necessary to survive deeper?

[Dragonboneman]

You can go a little deeper. At around 2000' poison breathers (Ancient Green/Ancient Multihued Dragons, Drolems) can start showing up, these are deadly without resist poison (which is also hard to find before that depth).
Ranged Confusion attacks will also become more frequent.

As a warrior, you should be carrying haste items like potions of speed and temporary resist items (such as potions of Resist Cold) as these stack with permanent resists to give even more protection. As you can see, not carrying spellbooks doesn't mean warriors are spared inventory-related headaches!


Also, enchant your arrows with scrolls, this will significantly improve archery but is heavy on the gold.

[buzzkill]

Beware of that 2000' mark (DL40). The dungeon suddenly gets a lot harder. Suddenly just being hit once can lead to an untimely death. Play slowly. When in doubt, FLEE. Try to aviod being greedy, as a lot of tasty new item will begin to appear (usually near monsters that you can tackle 'with just a little luck'). Watch your keystrokes and be aware of real-life fatigue. You're more likely to lose a character to sloppy play (or greed), rather than bad strategy.