Help for a long time loser

[exordis]

Hi all.
I seem to be doing something wrong when it comes to this game. I think the highest level I've ever made it to is about cl30 by playing extremely cautious and getting very lucky.

Lately I've started having some good runs, for me that is, getting to a cl of mid 20's and then failing to pick up good items and dying.

I'm wondering if I'm diving too deep too fast or not diving deep enough and hanging out where there are nasty monsters but not much chance of decent items.

Current character is here: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=11895

I generally stay around 3-4 dl deeper than my current CL although in this case I've lagged behind due to searching levels for items.

Any suggestions would be great

Thanks.

[buzzkill]

When asking for advice, it's better to post a character who has just shopped and is ready to re-enter the dungeon. From the looks of your char, I'd guess that this is somewhere near the end of your initial dive.

You're lacking basic, necessary, consumables, namely escapes. This probably stems from the lack of GP. I'm assuming, based on your weaponry, that you're comfortable at your current depth, so a little deeper and try to earn some gold. If you're playing with selling, sell everything that isn't directly useful (xtra weapon/bolts/staff/wand/un-id'd scrolls/maybe even those boots) and buy the stuff you need (lantern/better ammo/teleport/phase/bigger healing and tele level/deep decent in avil).

[Timo Pietilä]

Any suggestions would be great

Your ratio of resting turns to active turns tells me that you use a lot of spells. To survive with ranger think of it as a warrior more than a mage. Spells for ranger are for detection and buffs more than anything else, your melee and shooting should be your main methods of delivering damage. Winning with bookless ranger is about as easy than winning with a warrior. You only need a good shooter.

Carry phase door (10+). Buy a longbow. Enchant it: (4+2.5)*2 = 13, (2+2.5)*3=13.5. Buy CCW when you can afford it.

Don't be greedy, avoiding unnecessary fights is a key to survival in the dungeon. Speed and high HP are necessities deep in dungeon. Anything that moves faster than you that you don't know should be considered deadly.

This is a lesson you need to learn: you can't handle every monster in the dungeon. Early levels tend to teach you opposite, and unlearning that later can be difficult. Learn to bail out while it is still safe thing to do.

[UglySquirrell]

Have you thought about playing a kobold? You'll lose a bit of intelligence, but gain Dex and poison resistance. Having innate poison resistance helps a lot well you're learning who to avoid. Always keep at least 1 wand of sleep for the earlier game so you can take a break well clearing pits or to escape hordes of orcs. Check the black market whenever in town for teleport level, and teleport scrolls. Try and keep 1 or 2 staffs of teleportation on you, I also buy all the protection from evil scrolls I see, there fairly cheap and help a lot. I'd recommend trying the no selling option, less things to manage and you find plenty of gold in the dungeons, try and find free action before going past level 19. Or if you don't, then avoid carrion crawlers like the plague if one hits you you will die. Druids and illusionists have a paralyze spell as well but its usually not fatal unless there's other creatures near by.

[fizzix]

Detection is your friend. It probably should be the only spell you cast. Detect stairs a couple times per level and detect monsters all the time. This should be sufficient until you hit the 30s where you start coming across invisible, dangerous monsters.

Know what you're fighting at all times. If possible bail before you begin the fight and not after you get in trouble. Currently in the game, the most reliable escapes are ?TL and ?DD and you can often find them in the BM. If you see them, buy them. Not only do they immediately remove you from bad areas, but they put you on a level where you get the first move. The other good escape that is available in town is _Teleport. I generally try to get this as soon as I can afford it. Lastly you aren't carrying any ?phase which means you either ran out or didn't get any. You should never enter the dungeon without them. Yes, you have the spell, but at best it will fail 1 in 20 times. That's not good enough when SHTF.

Rangers are a bit harder to play now that enchant scrolls are not available in the shops. But the extra shot at dlevel 20 is still very big. Archery should be your prime mode of dealing damage, melee/devices second, and offensive spells never.

[bulian]

I've seen enough threads like this where I wonder whether stickying a new players guide on how to win Angband should be on the forum?

[fizzix]

Eddie's (PowerDiver)Tales of the Bold Rogue is probably the best option here. It's very much still applicable, and a decent read as well.

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.roguelike.angband/browse_frm/thread/bebff4c9dadf9479?pli=1

[exordis]

Thanks everyone. I'm sure these questions get asked quite often but I've run had problems telling if old threads/guides are any good in the current version.

Going to go look at the Tales of the Bold Rogue.

Thanks once again.

[exordis]

Just did a shop and thought I'd follow advice and post the dump at that point. No longbows in any of the shops but I did invest in ?phase door, !CCW, and some beefier arrows.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=11895

[Timo Pietilä]

Just did a shop and thought I'd follow advice and post the dump at that point. No longbows in any of the shops but I did invest in ?phase door, !CCW, and some beefier arrows.
http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=11895

...and got killed by homunculus it seems.

Invest on some AC. High saving throw and high AC helps a lot in current vanilla against paralyzation. Rings of Protection especially are very good early and relatively cheap method of getting high AC without high weight cost. Don't bother with resists before 1500+ depths, you will not really need them before that. Just avoid Ancient Dragons if you don't have the resist (obviously any ego with resist is better than no ego, but rings usually are not worth the slot). After around 2000' you absolutely need all five basic resists unless you know what to avoid and how to avoid it.

For next char, if you stick with ranger, try hobbit or high-elf. They have very good survivability stats and high skills with bows. Hobbit can be a bit tricky very early, but high CON and DEX helps a lot and later you get items to counter bad STR and low hit-die.

Or you could try something else like Dwarf paladin/warrior/priest (my favorite race).

[exordis]

Yeah, that made me a little sad. My own fault though as I didn't follow the advice to avoid monsters I don't know about.
I'll bare that in mind for my next character.

Thanks.

[buzzkill]

Yeah, that made me a little sad. My own fault though as I didn't follow the advice to avoid monsters I don't know about.
I'll bare that in mind for my next character.

You do know about monster recall, correct? Press l to look at a monster and then press r to recall everything you ever learned about it.

[Chud]

I've been playing a long time, and hanging out here on and off for awhile too, and I've never won... but I know very well why not. :-)

It almost always comes down to one thing: waiting too long to decide to run away.

"It's almost dead, if I can just get in a last couple of hits, I've got him this time..." and that often works, too. But it only takes one time for it not to work...

There are some other things to be aware of, of course... if seven breathers have you in line of sight down a hallway, for example, think of it as the one next to you getting to attack you seven times before you get to do anything. Usually not a good idea. The same principle applies to crowds of anything with a ranged attack, of course. If you're in an open room surrounded by time hounds, they can kill you in one turn regardless of who you are, what your level is, or what equipment you have.

Run away - and never run out of reliable means to run away; teleport-level is worlds better than vanilla teleport. After the first few levels, phase door is an attack tactic but not really much of an escape at all.

[Pete Mack]

I always recommend kobold or high-elf rogue as an answer to this question.
The extra stealth and HP makes a difference, as does the lower mama cost for detection.
Because of the high level and failure cost for spells, you will need to level up fast--that means dive, and that teaches survival.
Do not waste turns at depths shallower than 1500'.
You won't learn anything new, and you won't get interesting loot.

[exordis]

Well after applying most of the things people have suggested here I ended up with a highelf ranger who was going quite well until I decided to melee a darkelf lord.

I should have used phase doors to bounce around him and shoot him some more with my bow as a: I was doing about 2x the damage I did in melee combat with it and b: he was low after running across a room at me. Would have been worth 714 xp points but instead he used his boot on my face a couple of times and my head imploded.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=11897

Anyway, I'd just like to thank everyone for the help. I've already made more progress with my last couple of characters than I have with the previous five or six.