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Hi,
I'm playing dwarf priest ironman now. Survived longer than any previous attempt but never played priest or ironman before.
Anyone care to give ironman/priest specific tips? I've already taken a warrior all the way past Morgoth before, so I am not looking for general knowledge.
/Mathias
[EDIT] I found the search function in the forum and through that "joshhimself"'s nice input on this topic.
I've been playing exclusively ironman priests recently, so I think I can help. I haven't had an ironman winner yet, but I consistently make it to somewhere between dlvl 50 and 90.
(1) You absolutely MUST buy pb3 in the town. It is the key to your survival, and it's not "in depth" until dlvl 20, and it may be a lot deeper than that before you find it. To afford it, you need to leave between 3 and 5 stat points unassigned to get extra starting cash.
(2) If you're having trouble keeping the half-troll alive, consider playing a dwarf. The extra spell points, resist blindness, and better infravision will aid your survival more than the regeneration and a bit of extra strength and hit points.
With my dwarves, I assign 8 points to wis and 6 each to str and con. When I was just learning ironman, I put 12 into wis and 8 into str, since con is not so important until you make it deep into the dungeon.
I sell the ?recall and one of the !CSW, and spend the cash on one each of pb2 and pb3, one ?phase, and the rest on oil and torches. I might buy one food if my starting quota is low, but food should never be a problem with pb2 (half-trolls eat more, though, because of their regeneration). If you're willing to endure a lot of early deaths in favor of a better late game, you can assign your full allotment of stat points, sell your mace, and go barehanded until you find a weapon in the dungeon.
(3) I suggest you take the obj-desc.spo and reconfigure it to sort each item type by native depth. You can then compare your list to your object knowledge from the ~ menu to see what an unIDed item is likely to be, so that you can test it in the right situation. You can even check them off as you find them if you want to be extra careful.
(4) As you already know, be very paranoid of fire breathers and melee burners. In situations where you must fight them, consider stashing your spell books and other precious flammable items in a safe place. You can use the same trick with cold and electrical attacks, although these are less of a threat than fire. There are tricks for dealing with hounds when necessary. My favorite is standing two steps into a hallway, waiting for the hounds to enter the room through a different hallway entrance, then using orb to dispose of them. You may have to manually aim the orb into spots you can't see. The way the angband targeting works, a missile can travel one space horizontally/vertically then as many as you want diagonally. The hounds can't see you if you set it up correctly, and they won't enter your hallway unless you're below 50% of your hit points.
(5) I'm not a big fan of rings of teleportation (a ring of strength can often help your speed just as much), but 2 rings of escaping (+8 speed!) is worth considering - for the dwarf with high wisdom more than the half-troll. Sometimes I use this as my basic configuration, sometimes not. Amulet of infravision is your best early amulet (better than acid or lightning, which don't protect your equipment) before amulets of wisdom start appearing.
(6) Knowing what to keep and what to pitch can be tough in ironman. Don't weigh yourself down by hoarding a bunch of consumable stuff you never end up using. On the other hand, having the right weapon and equipment swaps available is critical. I'll often wield a +wisdom weapon as my default and then switch to another one for higher damage (or free action or see invisible, etc). I even swap rings a lot.
(7) The main things you need to survive through the middle levels of the dungeon are pb5 and either pb6 or ESP. Also, wisdom and stealth are more important than most of the resistances.
I hope that at least some of that helps.
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Last edited by joshhimself; August 6, 2010 at 19:02.
I'm playing dwarf priest ironman now. Survived longer than any previous attempt but never played priest or ironman before.
Anyone care to give ironman/priest specific tips? I've already taken a warrior all the way past Morgoth before, so I am not looking for general knowledge.
/Mathias
[EDIT] I found the search function in the forum and through that "joshhimself"'s nice input on this topic.
I've been playing exclusively ironman priests recently, so I think I can help. I haven't had an ironman winner yet, but I consistently make it to somewhere between dlvl 50 and 90.
(1) You absolutely MUST buy pb3 in the town. It is the key to your survival, and it's not "in depth" until dlvl 20, and it may be a lot deeper than that before you find it. To afford it, you need to leave between 3 and 5 stat points unassigned to get extra starting cash.
(2) If you're having trouble keeping the half-troll alive, consider playing a dwarf. The extra spell points, resist blindness, and better infravision will aid your survival more than the regeneration and a bit of extra strength and hit points.
With my dwarves, I assign 8 points to wis and 6 each to str and con. When I was just learning ironman, I put 12 into wis and 8 into str, since con is not so important until you make it deep into the dungeon.
I sell the ?recall and one of the !CSW, and spend the cash on one each of pb2 and pb3, one ?phase, and the rest on oil and torches. I might buy one food if my starting quota is low, but food should never be a problem with pb2 (half-trolls eat more, though, because of their regeneration). If you're willing to endure a lot of early deaths in favor of a better late game, you can assign your full allotment of stat points, sell your mace, and go barehanded until you find a weapon in the dungeon.
(3) I suggest you take the obj-desc.spo and reconfigure it to sort each item type by native depth. You can then compare your list to your object knowledge from the ~ menu to see what an unIDed item is likely to be, so that you can test it in the right situation. You can even check them off as you find them if you want to be extra careful.
(4) As you already know, be very paranoid of fire breathers and melee burners. In situations where you must fight them, consider stashing your spell books and other precious flammable items in a safe place. You can use the same trick with cold and electrical attacks, although these are less of a threat than fire. There are tricks for dealing with hounds when necessary. My favorite is standing two steps into a hallway, waiting for the hounds to enter the room through a different hallway entrance, then using orb to dispose of them. You may have to manually aim the orb into spots you can't see. The way the angband targeting works, a missile can travel one space horizontally/vertically then as many as you want diagonally. The hounds can't see you if you set it up correctly, and they won't enter your hallway unless you're below 50% of your hit points.
(5) I'm not a big fan of rings of teleportation (a ring of strength can often help your speed just as much), but 2 rings of escaping (+8 speed!) is worth considering - for the dwarf with high wisdom more than the half-troll. Sometimes I use this as my basic configuration, sometimes not. Amulet of infravision is your best early amulet (better than acid or lightning, which don't protect your equipment) before amulets of wisdom start appearing.
(6) Knowing what to keep and what to pitch can be tough in ironman. Don't weigh yourself down by hoarding a bunch of consumable stuff you never end up using. On the other hand, having the right weapon and equipment swaps available is critical. I'll often wield a +wisdom weapon as my default and then switch to another one for higher damage (or free action or see invisible, etc). I even swap rings a lot.
(7) The main things you need to survive through the middle levels of the dungeon are pb5 and either pb6 or ESP. Also, wisdom and stealth are more important than most of the resistances.
I hope that at least some of that helps.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last edited by joshhimself; August 6, 2010 at 19:02.
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