YACD - Angdiira II

[Nolendil]

EDIT: Dump has been updated.

Hello everyone,

I currently have a quite interesting character since it's probably my best one ever (yeah, I know, she's only clevel 36 ).
I think I reached a point where the mess in my home and inventory needs a lot of cleaning... and that has never been a thing I've been good at.
I'm always afraid to sell/drop the wrong stuff and mess up my game.

So here's my current situation after recalling to town:

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=11337

My home is full, so full that I even kept a few things in my inventory before posting.
Any help to clean that would be really welcome.
Pointing out the items I really should keep for some time or even to the endgame would be greatly appreciated.

Caspanion looks great having both rConf and rPoison, even though it "encumbers my movement". I think I should drop my BDSM and go with Caspanion now, right?
This way, I could drop the =rPoison and use my recently found =Con(+5) instead.

Is there a weapon that would be better than my current Whip of Westernesse? I have 4 blows with it but it feels weird to still use such a light weapon.

Since my cloak of the Magi gives ESP, I might use something else than Thranduil but my other headgear doesn't seem really interesting.

My gloves are just useful for making more damage, not sure it's worth it but I don't see anything much better. I kept the Gloves of Thievery out of curiosity (first time I find this type of item) and to show an alternative.

rShard from the Cloak of Protection doesn't seem very interesting, should I still keep it just in case?

Any insight about consumables?
Are !rPoison useful to stock to have double resist when needed?
Should I bring !Healing around? I have 0% fail on my Heal spell but can still be stunned (and fail rate will then reach 15-16% I think).
Should I dismiss my Rod of TO since I have the book with it now?

Paurhach, Forasgil and the Boots of Wormtongue are probably junk that I should sell. Right?
Does Firestar's immunity to fire make more it interesting than I think?
I have several "pointy" weapons and still don't understand what the penalty involves. Should I sell them all?

... Well, I think I wonder about every single of my current items actually so don't be afraid to state things that seem obvious to you, because they probably won't be to me

[buzzkill]

After a quick review..

The Leather Scale Mail 'Thalkettoth' --- you'll probably never use this again.
The Metal Cap of Thengel --- The Iron Helm 'Holhenneth' is better in every way.
The Set of Gauntlets 'Paurhach' --- should be wearing these for regen, it works for mana too.
The Pair of Leather Boots of Wormtongue --- speed is better, these are junk, ditto stability.
The Long Sword 'Elvagil' --- could probably lose this, will probably never be useful, ditto the holy avenger.
The Quarterstaff 'Nar-i-vagil' --- use this as soon as you get FA and SI somewhere else.
Fur Cloak of Protection [3,+8] --- junk.
a Set of Leather Gloves of Thievery (+4,+1) --- junk.

hope that helps.

EDIT: (Doh! I though this was a mage for some reason, but most of the suggestions still apply)

[Nolendil]

Thanks, Buzzkill, for taking the time to go through my mess

I'll post an updated dump with the most obvious junk sold to make it easier for other reviewers and come back with a few questions shortly.
I also edited the thread title to avoid confusion about my class

[SSK]

First of all: "a Pair of Leather Boots of Speed [2,+9] (+6) {!d!v!k}
Found lying on the floor at 50 feet (level 1)."

Hokey smokes! Level *1* +9 speed?

Caspanion looks great having both rConf and rPoison, even though it "encumbers my movement". I think I should drop my BDSM and go with Caspanion now, right? This way, I could drop the =rPoison and use my recently found =Con(+5) instead.

Caspanion is definitely better than Bronze DSM, but see below--need to consider the whole picture.

Is there a weapon that would be better than my current Whip of Westernesse? I have 4 blows with it but it feels weird to still use such a light weapon.

Since my cloak of the Magi gives ESP, I might use something else than Thranduil but my other headgear doesn't seem really interesting.

Two real options:
1) keep the ring of poison for now, put on THALKETTOTH, giving you +3 speed, AND free action. Then put on HOLHENNETH instead of Thranduil (since you have ESP off the cloak), giving you See invisible and r blind and r conf. NOW you can wear DAGMOR, giving you more damage AND regeneration.

2) keep Westernesse for now and wear Caspanion and the ring of CON.

I prefer #2 because of the CON--you really need it BAD right now and this option gives you +8, for a boatload of HP, whereas #1 gives you -2 Con ugh. Then again you also need speed to dive more... I think you can prolly handle Dlevel 45 about now (there are more items you want at 45 than 39--like the artifact great axes for instance....)

Your best current weapon overall for the future (when you can wield it better and when you have other things covered) is of course the Glaive of Pain, but there's the sharp penalty. Not on the tip-top weapon list but pretty darn good, then again, most of the truly top tier weapons are either blunt or blessed. You can sell that piece of junk Elvagil for sure.

rShard from the Cloak of Protection doesn't seem very interesting, should I still keep it just in case?

Sell.

>Any insight about consumables?

Priests need less in general for the endgame because they get 0% failure on their very helpful spells. The biggie should be !restore mana. NEVER wear a combo which allows blindness of course (on pain of death).

Should I bring !Healing around? I have 0% fail on my Heal spell but can still be stunned (and fail rate will then reach 15-16% I think).

YES. Always carry !healing, *healing*, and life. And !CCW for when you need to un-stun but don't want to waste one of the above. Actually if you play with "Birth no selling" this management will be a LOT easier--you make so much more $$ from treasure and no longer can profit from selling items, which totally frees up your inventory for consumables and carrying items with special situation usefulness...

Should I dismiss my Rod of TO since I have the book with it now?... Paurhach, Forasgil and the Boots of Wormtongue are probably junk that I should sell. Right?

Yes and Yes. Sell Thengel too.

Does Firestar's immunity to fire make more it interesting than I think?

I would carry if you go the Dagmor route and in general when you can get free action (and lesser necessity see invis) uncoupled from the weapon, so if you run into heavy fire breathers (and monsters with big burn melee attack) you can use this which not only will keep you alive but protect your scrolls and books from fire destruction. With Firestar's immunity you might even be able to kill VERY powerful monsters with fire-only--like Glaurung And Hell Wyrms, even I think Uriel... But can't do it without free action covered.

[SSK]

After a quick review..

The Leather Scale Mail 'Thalkettoth' --- you'll probably never use this again.
The Metal Cap of Thengel --- The Iron Helm 'Holhenneth' is better in every way.
The Set of Gauntlets 'Paurhach' --- should be wearing these for regen, it works for mana too.
The Pair of Leather Boots of Wormtongue --- speed is better, these are junk, ditto stability.
The Long Sword 'Elvagil' --- could probably lose this, will probably never be useful, ditto the holy avenger.
The Quarterstaff 'Nar-i-vagil' --- use this as soon as you get FA and SI somewhere else.
Fur Cloak of Protection [3,+8] --- junk.
a Set of Leather Gloves of Thievery (+4,+1) --- junk.

hope that helps.

EDIT: (Doh! I though this was a mage for some reason, but most of the suggestions still apply)

Why bother with Nar-I-vagil? If she uses Caspanion for rPois and covers FA and SI elsewhere, why not use Dagmor for now (it has regen and so she can keep gloves power) and GoP when she can wield it?

[Nolendil]

Thanks a lot, SSK, for your comments.

Yes, finding those boots lying on the floor at dlvl 1 was insane.
They are "only" +6, not +9 though. They still made life amazingly easier

So far, I went for the most obvious cleaning and sold the Fur Cloak of Protection, the Gloves of Thievery, Thengel, the BDSM, Wormtongue, Elvagil, the Holy Avenger Spear, the Rod of TO and Forasgil.

- I kept Thalkettoth as it might be useful for some combinations after all.
- About Paurhach, I didn't know that fast regen worked for mana too, as buzzkill mentioned. It might be interesting after all. Or is that not enough to consider it?
- Boots of Stability: the boots of speed are certainly better but I wonder if rNexus might be needed and hard to find. Maybe keep them as a swap?

About SSK's 1st option: looks interesting. However, keep in mind that I have rBlind as a racial attribute so Holhenneth might not be as valuable. The activation is not very useful either since I have the equivalent priest spell.
Anyway, option 2 seems safer as you pointed out so I'll follow that path

About healing, ok, I'll start bringing a few pots of Healing. I already have a nice stock or !RestoreMana at home btw. And blindness is not an issue as mentioned above
I'm still worried about being stunned, this makes my prayer fail rate rise to 15-16%. Is there a way to be immune to stunning or minimize the risks?

Wow, my inventory and home already look MUCH cleaner. Thanks to both of you
Dump was updated, I just forgot to reequip before (swapping the =rPoison for =Con, for instance).

PS: Editing the first post didn't change the thread title, I thought it would work

[Timo Pietilä]

After a quick review..

The Leather Scale Mail 'Thalkettoth' --- you'll probably never use this again.

EDIT: (Doh! I though this was a mage for some reason, but most of the suggestions still apply)

Thalkettoth advice doesn't. He is playing Dwarf Priest, which means he needs boost to DEX, also Thalkettoth speed-bonus is a good one.

If/when he gets Elessar and Thorin he might want to get that speed + DEX instead of using Caspanion.

Also Wormtongue +3 DEX can be useful if he gets his base speed high enough that losing +3 speed from BoS doesn't hurt.

Currently RoRPoison is redundant, Caspanion covers that, so RoCON would be a lot more useful there.

[Nolendil]

Oops, ok, I just bought Wormtongue back considering your comment, Timo
I also wear the =Con now, forgot to do it before updating the dump: HP is now at 608 (from 500).

[SSK]

Thalkettoth advice doesn't. He is playing Dwarf Priest, which means he needs boost to DEX, also Thalkettoth speed-bonus is a good one.

If/when he gets Elessar and Thorin he might want to get that speed + DEX instead of using Caspanion.

Also Wormtongue +3 DEX can be useful if he gets his base speed high enough that losing +3 speed from BoS doesn't hurt.

Currently RoRPoison is redundant, Caspanion covers that, so RoCON would be a lot more useful there.

I usually keep Thalkettoth around in my home for a while--without the +3 speed I would prolly sell it much quicker... Caspanion is the way for her though--allows a freed up ring slot and additional +3 Con. I am thinking really she needs gloves of agility/free action--Fingolfin would be awfully nice :-) ANd maybe when she goes to DLevel 45 she will find something nice like Eonwe or Durin, or Aule.

[Timo Pietilä]

I usually keep Thalkettoth around in my home for a while--without the +3 speed I would prolly sell it much quicker... Caspanion is the way for her though--allows a freed up ring slot and additional +3 Con. I am thinking really she needs gloves of agility/free action--Fingolfin would be awfully nice :-) ANd maybe when she goes to DLevel 45 she will find something nice like Eonwe or Durin, or Aule.

Thalkettoth is a bit oddball in Artifacts. I find it very useful early and again very late in game. Usually when artifact loses its usefulness it doesn't gain it back later, but this is not true in Thalkettoth case.

[SSK]

Thalkettoth is a bit oddball in Artifacts. I find it very useful early and again very late in game. Usually when artifact loses its usefulness it doesn't gain it back later, but this is not true in Thalkettoth case.

Yeah that is true. My recent winner wore it early then NEARLY wore it much later (but didn't). It was still in my home when I killed Morgy, though other higher rated artifacts like Sting and other big weapons were moved out.

It's that Speed +3 is just nice for body armor. I guess it is totally replaced by DSM of speed... But in my experience that tends to be found very low down.

[Derakon]

The +3 DEX can also be very useful for melee-oriented characters.

Sting is nice early on, but in the endgame you really need more damage, so there's no point having it around.

[Timo Pietilä]

The +3 DEX can also be very useful for melee-oriented characters.

Light weight and decent AC for spellcasters too. Resist shards is not bad either, heavy shard breathers are quite common deep (gelugon, Huan, few dragons). It is also resistance that other high-level gears usually don't cover.

[EDIT] few typos corrected

[Timo Pietilä]

It's that Speed +3 is just nice for body armor. I guess it is totally replaced by DSM of speed... But in my experience that tends to be found very low down.

DSM of speed was so broken that I removed that from my copy. Every one of my chars ended up using one before I removed that from ego-item.txt.

Entire ego-DSM scenario is kind of broken. That needs to be fixed.

[SSK]

DSM of speed was so broken that I removed that from my copy. Every one of my chars ended up using one before I removed that from ego-item.txt.

Entire ego-DSM scenario is kind of broken. That needs to be fixed.

Yeah I was commenting on the other thread--all my recent chars found very nice DSM of permanence--one found Law DSM o' permanence early, another found *3* DSM of permanence--two gold and one Pseudo. I think he actually found a 4th on L 100 while setting up the battle with Morgy.

That last char wore a lot o diff stuff--Dwarven Green DSM for a while--but found actually a better dwarven green dsm LOL, before finding the DSMs of permanence.

Point is they are way too common. Looks like Magnate agreed w me that having them around is nice for variety as long as they are far rarer--particularly speed and permanence--though I think he says permanence is going away.