Another High-Elf Ranger seeking advice

[Ycombinator]

character dump

I've reached levels where some good gear starts to appear and now I have trouble choosing equipment and managing my inventory.
I used to carry Taratol for its speed activation, anti-dragon effectiveness and general damage output, but I've just found Aglarang and +5 speed seems more important.
I have two items that grant ESP: Dagger of Gondolin and Crown of Telepathy. Swapping melee weapon is really inconvenient. Is it worth wearing crown of telepathy instead of crown of might? I will lose sustain CON and 51 HP out of 580.

Anything else I should be looking for?

[Nemesis]

51 HP out of 580 makes a difference in that sense that it can be the difference of surviving or dying to a non-(double)resisted resisted breath attack. But with speed and telepathy, it is much easier to avoid things capable of one-shotting you. Personally, I'd go with telepathy and just make sure I don't come near monsters capable of one-shotting me. You're going to need more hitpoints sooner or later of course, but having good speed and telepathy is good when you hunt for easy xp and treasures (which will give you more CON and hitpoints).

Max damage for single resisted fire/frost/acid/lightning: 533
Max damage for unresisted neather breath: 550

I'm not sure of which monsters you'll have to look out for, but Great Wyrms and uniques seem obvious. There are probably a few other monsters too, so hopefully someone else at this forum can fill you in. I actually don't think there are are any lists avalible that give us the maximum damage of different monsters, and there are no straight answers in the monster.txt file either (breath damage is calculated from the breather's hit points, and hit points are random for non-uniques if I remember correctly).

[Ycombinator]

I've made some progress with this character up to clvl 37 (see the dump linked in the first post). It's 628 HP now, but I decided that telepathy at the cost of HP and other stats doesn't suit my game style now. I've found another dagger of Gondolin with telepathy but much migher to-dam bonus and use it most of the time.

Another question: do these elemental rings (of Flames, of Ice, of Acid) brand melee attacks in 3.0.9b? In-game descriptions say nothing about it.

[PowerDiver]

Another question: do these elemental rings (of Flames, of Ice, of Acid) brand melee attacks in 3.0.9b?

No. Very rarely, you can make use of the temp resist, but for practical purposes they are junk if you find them anywhere near their standard depth. If you find a ring of lightning, carry it if you have a free slot hoping to find a storm wyrm, but don't take it home except to sell it.

[Ycombinator]

No. Very rarely, you can make use of the temp resist, but for practical purposes they are junk if you find them anywhere near their standard depth. If you find a ring of lightning, carry it if you have a free slot hoping to find a storm wyrm, but don't take it home except to sell it.

I see. I don't think ring of lightning will be of any use for me if I have optional lightning immunity from Taratol.

P.S. Just found Rod of Restoration at dlvl 50, I think this is one of the most OoD item I've ever seen so far.

[Pete Mack]

You are good to go down to speed ring depth, and pick up more speed and especially Tenser's.

[Ycombinator]

Phoenix... If you've just found great artifact guarded only by orcs, don't be greedy and don't attack powerful unique in the same vault.
Anyway, I am glad I've made it this far. My best character before this one died at dlvl 8 :-)

[Pete Mack]

Phoenix is the classic death for a first trip below 2500'. He triple moved me for *how much* fire, light, and plasma damage???

[Ycombinator]

Hey, I've got another one :-)
here is the dump
My home overflows, what artifacts are worth keeping? I think all melee weapons from home inventory are pretty much useless for me except maybe Haradekket and Ulmo.

[Sirridan]

Hey, I've got another one :-)
here is the dump
My home overflows, what artifacts are worth keeping? I think all melee weapons from home inventory are pretty much useless for me except maybe Haradekket and Ulmo.

Yeah drop all those, but keep Ulmo, and maybe carry it for the swap. (Ugh 3 swap weps, but imAcid is super useful)

Hell, just wield ulmo and get rid of Balli as soon as you make up for the con.

get rid of all the other weapons including Haradekket (bard with +0,0 arrows already outdoes it against it's slays), and the two artifact bows. Now that you have Bard you won't wield anything else.

Also you two paur gloves, neither gives resist lightning so drop em too.

EDIT: Also once you get more dex/int from your gear, drop wormtongue and go back for your BoS

[Ycombinator]

Yeah drop all those, but keep Ulmo, and maybe carry it for the swap. (Ugh 3 swap weps, but imAcid is super useful)

I've just found Thorin. Ironically, it was dropped by acidic cytoplasm I killed with Ulmo. So this makes up CON (further CON boosts don't increase HP). Too bad I am losing rDark and rBlind without Celegorm.

[Sirridan]

Nice! Might want to keep Balli for a swap for rBlind now, although with staves of teleport and !CCW, although it's not a thing you direly need since you have telepathy.

Although if you go down to higher Q depth, you definitely want rBlind, being blind and not seeing the Greater Rotting Q summoning a bunch of Black Reavers is not something that ends well.

[Ycombinator]

It's clvl 44, I have +20 speed and Tenser's (dump). Firing branded arrows with Bard feels way overpowered, but at least there are many creatures immune to elements.

Are Cubragol and Umbar of any use for me? I don't think they can surpass damage output of Bard, but maybe with good bolts...

All DROP_GREAT uniques disappointed me: Saruman, Ar-Pharazon, Glaurung. Saruman dropped interesting bow of Lothlorien, but everything else was absolutely useless.

I am a bit unsure what to do next. I was hanging out near dlvl 75 for a while, waiting for Tenser's, mostly avoiding fights. Now I can't think of any game changing item except rings of power and PDSM. Should I dive to dlvl 90 and hunt lonely great wyrms?

[miyazaki]

It's clvl 44, I have +20 speed and Tenser's (dump). Firing branded arrows with Bard feels way overpowered, but at least there are many creatures immune to elements.

Are Cubragol and Umbar of any use for me? I don't think they can surpass damage output of Bard, but maybe with good bolts...

All DROP_GREAT uniques disappointed me: Saruman, Ar-Pharazon, Glaurung. Saruman dropped interesting bow of Lothlorien, but everything else was absolutely useless.

I am a bit unsure what to do next. I was hanging out near dlvl 75 for a while, waiting for Tenser's, mostly avoiding fights. Now I can't think of any game changing item except rings of power and PDSM. Should I dive to dlvl 90 and hunt lonely great wyrms?

You should dive down to dlvl 97, look for dragon pits (you have 3 immunities), vaults or other lesser pits. You need arrow of acid (for Sauron) and slay evil (for Morgoth). With the acid arrows, you are strong enough to take on Sauron right now, but you could use some more consumables for the final battle (depending on how you want to do it). Scrolls of banishment, mass banishment and *destruction* should be saved for Morgoth.

[Ycombinator]

UPD: I've found The Crown of Gondor (Witch-King) and Narya (Baphomet) and was able to assemble the kit with basic speed +28 and resist everything except shards and disenchantment. rDisen can be covered at the expence of +3 speed.