Help, < 60 easy, > 60 hard

[MCP]

3.08 final.

First off if there are guides someone's written for this far into the game I didn't find them, so links please.

For dungeon levels above 60, pretty easy to kill.
For dungeon levels below 60, pretty fin hard to kill any unique.

This is my first time playing angband. I need lower level strategies.

Human mage, lvl 43. Couldn't kill saruman, azriel angel of death, and uriel angel of fire.

I don't mind spoilers. I've been reading the monster spoiler for hints in strategy, but setting up a hallway(s) of protection glyphs to melee and mfg(rift) or mff(meteor swarm) no good.

I have been prebuffed with med(resistances) and mdc(speed) of course. I am missing shard, disenchantment, chaos, and nether resistances.

Don't have Kelek's book. Hopefully saruman will be able to drop it around dungeon lvl 62.

Now obviously this can be done, but I need help with strategy on taking down monsters on the lower levels.

Thanks.

[Conker]

Nether's pretty vital. You can live without chaos (but run like hell from Jabberwocks) and disenchant, shard would be nice.

As per your damage dealing abilities, all I can suggest is isolating and spamming 'Shock Wave' at anything that gives you trouble. Maybe you could post a dump of your char so we could see what equipment you have?
________
Rennsport

[Nick]

Human mage, lvl 43. Couldn't kill saruman, azriel angel of death, and uriel angel of fire.

These guys are all tough. If you're still alive, you didn't do too badly.

My advice would be to avoid them. They'll be back; try and kill them later when you have more spells and mana and better gear.

[Djabanete]

I have never gotten a mage down to that depth before, so I can't give you any specific advice, but I can give what I hope is good general advice.

If you can't deal with the uniques at the depth where you're at, then don't. You really don't have to. I recommend that you figure out what detection magic you use most frequently. This includes activations, rods, and spells. Any repeatable, non-redundant detecting that you can do, figure out what it is and hotkey it. (Off the top of my head, Rods of Detection, Detect Monsters, Detect Invisible, and Detect Magic seem like good candidates.) Ideally, you want to know all your surroundings just by pressing 12345. This will help you stay out of harm's way.

Sometimes though, you'll need to go *into* harm's way. For these situations, you should also hotkey Haste Self and Resistance (I assume you have the Resistances book - if not, it should come up soon at that depth). Also, have the Teleport Away spell at the ready (again, I assume you have Mordenkainen). Armed with these three spells, you should be able to deal with uniques safely and efficiently.

See, if you can't fight stuff at this depth, you're obviously lacking in spellbooks or artifacts. So the trick is to find that stuff. By using constant detection, and by teleporting away the things you don't want to fight, you improve your chances of finding said stuff before you die. Eventually you'll accumulate enough artifacts and useful things that those uniques that used to give you trouble, will suddenly become very easy. And then you kill them. Simple as that.

[MCP]

I just said f-it and dropped down to 80 something. Wandered around with stair creation until magically I found kelek's grimoire of power on the ground. Saruman then tasted the wrath of mana storm and mass banishment.

Also I got a superb feeling and a large sized vault, but no uniques were found. I wonder if one of the monsters I teleported away had picked it up? Are uniques guaranteed on a level with superb feeling?

I have better equipment now. Lacking shard, nether and disenchantment still. Crown of gondor is an improvement.

So thanks for the advice. I was looking for general fighting strategies with mages. But I probably figured enough of them out on my own.

Thinking of dropping down to lvl 90+ and searching for artifacts.

Not killing things, just...

NOT DIEING!

[MCP]

I need some help.

How do I dump my character information? I have a bunch of new uniques and I may need some help arranging some setups so I don't miss anything.

I killed five uniques on a superb level(85). All from the same hallway.

[Nick]

How do I dump my character information?

'C' to go to the change name screen, then 'f' to dump to a file.

[MCP]

I couldn't figure out how to post it on here directly with correct formatting.
So my character is attached.

My mace of gondolin has telepathy.

Edit: I have the palantir and narya now. Only missing electricity :\... Gloves could do it, Eol or Pauraegen or something.
edit: Or I could turn my greatest weakness into my greatest strength. Taratol mace with immunity to electricity and branded with electricity.

[Matthias]

The best way to post a character dump is using the ladder

[MCP]

So what are the breakpoints for speed on a human mage? Where could I have found this? or how.

Thanks.

[Djabanete]

First off, getting as much speed as you possibly can is not a bad rule of thumb

Morgoth, the most dangerous monster, moves at +30. You don't want to be any slower than that for the final battle, or else he might double-move you: and if both moves were mana storms, that would be curtains for just about any character (certainly for a mage). So, you want to make sure your hasted speed as at LEAST +30.

My only winner had a final unhasted speed of +37, without ever finding Feanor. I played kind of munchkinishly and Morgoth was ridiculously easy. You don't need to be *that* fast to win the final fight, but it won't hurt. Also, as I understand it, every point of speed beyond +35 matters less and less.

So I guess the moral is, don't fight Morgoth at less than +30 hasted speed, and although more is better, there's no need to go overboard.

[MCP]

Thanks a lot, but I'm looking for more detailed information.

How much does it not matter past 35? How much do I need so I go one turn faster? I need to quantify the results of sacrificing certain things for speed, if I get one extra mana storm then it's worth it.

[Bandobras]

In O it's here. Dunno if it's the same in V.

byte extract_energy[200] =
{
        /* Slow */     1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,
        /* Slow */     1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,
        /* Slow */     1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,
        /* Slow */     1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,
        /* Slow */     1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,
        /* Slow */     1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,
        /* S-50 */     1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,
        /* S-40 */     2,  2,  2,  2,  2,  2,  2,  2,  2,  2,
        /* S-30 */     2,  2,  2,  2,  2,  2,  2,  3,  3,  3,
        /* S-20 */     3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,
        /* S-10 */     5,  5,  5,  5,  6,  6,  7,  7,  8,  9,
        /* Norm */    10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,
        /* F+10 */    20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29,
        /* F+20 */    30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 36, 37, 37,
        /* F+30 */    38, 38, 39, 39, 40, 40, 40, 41, 41, 41,
        /* F+40 */    42, 42, 42, 43, 43, 43, 44, 44, 44, 44,
        /* F+50 */    45, 45, 45, 45, 45, 46, 46, 46, 46, 46,
        /* F+60 */    47, 47, 47, 47, 47, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48,
        /* F+70 */    49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49,
        /* Fast */    49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49,
};

BTW, I think the penalties for speed -1 and -2 are too harsh (over 1/10 of the whole speed!). It's especially nasty for encumbered hobbit mages and the like. I guess I'll try to change it in Un, maintainer permitting .

[Nick]

Thanks a lot, but I'm looking for more detailed information.

You could try Hugo's spoiler site.

[MCP]

thank you that should take care of 99% of my questions. Whoever packaged my osx version didn't add the spoilers, but I wasn't quite sure what to look for on google.