Help for a long time loser

[fizzix]

Here's what I usually do when I'm comfortable at current depth.

1. Arrive on new level.
2. Move to nearby safe location (think corridor) if necessary (and if convenient).
3. Detect traps and stairs.
4. Detect treasure.
5. Detect evil/monsters.
6a. If the monsters look like trouble, head for the nearest stairs.
6b. Else kill monsters worth XP or that have a drop and go after interesting treasures.
7. Repeat until you don't detect any interesting stuff and then take the stairs down.
8. Recall when you run out of detects, or when you need to re-kit.

This is good advice, but I'd do 5 first. Although this is probably more important for bad stealth characters that will wake up monsters before they can gain the safety of a corridor. It's generally a bad idea to light up a dark room as your first move.

[buzzkill]

This is good advice, but I'd do 5 first. Although this is probably more important for bad stealth characters that will wake up monsters before they can gain the safety of a corridor. It's generally a bad idea to light up a dark room as your first move.

The order is really a function of how relatively deep you are. In the early levels I'm very lax about trap detection, sometime monster detection too, unless I recognize a special room or vault. I find exploring in this manner tends to keep me on levels long enough to prevent me from getting in too deep. Of course, the situation dictates the detections, and once you get very deep or over your head, all bets are off. I probably also prioritize stealth more than most players.

[exordis]

So I've managed to survive a little longer. I'm now finding things a little easier at the depth I'm at. Quite please with Nimthanc as it's pumped my hand to hand damage quite a bit.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=11898

Just wondering if I should be looking to get more resists before heading deeper or if I could go down a few more levels?

Any other suggestions?

[Scraper]

I think Timo mentioned that you really need the basic 4 resists once you start getting lower than 1500'. Since you have FA, you could probably go deeper, perhaps down to close to 1500'.

However, I think the main point coming through from all the vets is that you need to detect and avoid things that might kill you if you can't escape. One thing I realised in the game I recently won (first win) was how much stuff I wasn't fighting. I was destructing a lot of uniques that I was worried about. My mindset was simply "I'm not fighting anything that I think can kill me or shred my gear"

[dos350]

no selling feels ridiculous, also i vouch oil, just go 4 it, nn 2 buy armor at town b4 dungeon, mayb a cloak lol, get as many kind of potion as u can afford and a whip imo, or dagger mayb try warrior~~~

[Scraper]

I just had a quick look at your post to the ladder. I'm by no means a good player of this game but I just thought I would say a few comments.

1. The gauntlets you're wearing reduce your spell point pool and I think your chance of successfully casting spells. So dump them until you get artifact gloves that won't suppress your casting ability.

2. As far as healing is concerned, once I have a huge stack of !CCW, I drop all the others. I use !CCW to immediately cure blindness and confusion. If you're low on cash, use !CSW to remove blindness and confusion (and cuts when you try to melee grand master mystics - lost a high level priest due to knockout.) and use !CCW to recover health.

3. Ring of accuracy... I would use ring of dog/ reckless attacks/ slaying/ damage over that. Might just be my playstyle, but I don't think I have ever worn a ring of accuracy. I'm not a mathematician, but with 3.5 attacks/rnd with your *thanc, even a slight increase in damage via a ring of dog/reckless attacks etc. will increase your dpr quite a lot.

I'm also playing a HE ranger, currently cl17... best of luck and see you at the finish line.

[Scraper]

no selling feels ridiculous

I thought so too until my current game. No selling. Rand arts. Currently clvl17, first trip to dungeon. AU 23k and counting. dlvl18. With all that gold, I will be able to set up my middle game. !CCW, _teleport, _ ID etc. No selling to me feels *much* easier than a selling game. Mining in a non-selling game is sick... I feel like I'm cheating when I mine... and I'm only on dl18.

If you really want to make this game harder, make it with non-selling and usual money drops. Early and mid-game require a certain degree of money management. No-selling option totally negates the money stress imho.

[buzzkill]

Just wondering if I should be looking to get more resists before heading deeper or if I could go down a few more levels?

More resists would be nice, but you're not very likely to find them here (items with multiple resists). With that damage output, you could go as deep as DL30, no problems. I'm not trying to push you there though. Are you still finding interesting stuff at current depth??? Angband's all about finding useful stuff. Killing things, less important.

... and use those ID scrolls on promising items. There's no reason that dagger shouldn't be fully ID'd. It may just contain the resists you crave (well, probably not, but you never know).

[UglySquirrell]

I would recommend teleporting Grand Master Mystics away, unless you're doing really good damage and have protection from evil spell up. Even then be careful. They rarely drop anything great, have high hitpoints, can summon, and are able to kill you're level 50 if they stun you repeatedly.

[exordis]

Well after some more careful playing I feel like I'm finally making some headway on the resistance front.

I'm trying to figure out what items I should be ditching at this point: Should I get rid of the ?deepdecent to free up a slot? I seem to be making trips back to town far to often at this point to dump items.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=11898

[Nomad]

Well after some more careful playing I feel like I'm finally making some headway on the resistance front.

I'm trying to figure out what items I should be ditching at this point: Should I get rid of the ?deepdecent to free up a slot? I seem to be making trips back to town far to often at this point to dump items.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=11898

?Deep Descent is worth still carrying with you - it can save you as an emergency escape from the level when you're in trouble. Personally, I wouldn't bother keeping any of your rods, wands or staves apart from Treasure Detection and Teleportation, but if you're still using them quite often, go ahead.

Now you can afford to buy Cure Critical Wounds in decent numbers, there's no real point keeping the less effective healing potions - I would ditch the Cure Light Wounds potions right away, and get rid of the Cure Serious Wounds ones when you've bought some more CCW to replace them.

You don't need to bother about selling so much now you've got a fair amount of money - it's not really worth lugging stuff back to town just to sell unless it's going to get you thousands of AU.

Also, that Ring of Damage in your pack is far more useful to be wearing than a Ring of Protection at this stage. A small amount of extra AC is no longer very useful compared to the other sorts of rings you can find at this depth, and a high boost to your melee damage is very valuable. If you're using melee a lot there aren't many rings better to wear than Damage apart from Constitution and Speed.

Other than that, your kit's looking pretty good - you've got all the major life-saving resists covered (the four elements, poison and free action) though it would be good if you can find some Boots of Stability to give you nexus resistance as well. You should start finding stat potions about this depth, which will help your survival chances a lot. Just be wary of going down to level 40 and below, because that's when the monsters suddenly get a lot nastier.

[Scraper]

A few tips from my pov

1. Carry mb3 it has identify (when u get the right level), satisfy hunger (no need to carry the scrolls), beam of light (no need to carry the rod), and stone to mud (no need to carry the wands).

That alone will free up 2 to 3 more slots in your inventory.

2. Seriously get rid of the gloves. As an arcane caster they significantly reduce your spell points. I'm also playing a Ranger at the moment and am admittedly wearing gloves, but they are slaying so I get (+5,+5) so a significant increase to my damage output.

3. As Nomad mentioned, wear the damage ring over the protection. It will increase your damage output quite a lot.