Help for a long time loser

[buzzkill]

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.

He's not terribly dangerous, save for his speed. Watch out for the mage and priest versions too. Phase door won't save you versus faster enemies. Looking at your dump, at that depth, with what you were carrying, your death was predictable and almost inevitable.

[Timo Pietilä]

He's not terribly dangerous, save for his speed. Watch out for the mage and priest versions too. Phase door won't save you versus faster enemies. Looking at your dump, at that depth, with what you were carrying, your death was predictable and almost inevitable.

Only thing that was "wrong" is his poor equipment status for that depth. Otherwise I would say his gear was pretty optimal. One thing lacking is escapes. Teleport scrolls or staff.

@exordis, don't try to match Eddies speed, he has developed his diving skill in a form of art, new players can't survive trying to keep with that speed.

Dive a bit slower. Try "no selling" game (birth options). It makes early levels easier because money drops are increased, but you don't get money from items sold. After a while it feels quite natural way of playing.

[Scraper]

I don't want to jump on the band wagon, but rings of protection aren't very useful in my opinion. Almost any other ring is going to trump it. =resist fire or cold etc.

Is this true for other people or am I missing something with =protection? It's almost always squelched as soon as I find them.

[LostTemplar]

AC is underestimated by allmost everyone here. It can protect against many nasty melee attacks very well.

[Timo Pietilä]

I don't want to jump on the band wagon, but rings of protection aren't very useful in my opinion. Almost any other ring is going to trump it. =resist fire or cold etc.

Is this true for other people or am I missing something with =protection? It's almost always squelched as soon as I find them.

Protection is better than resistance rings until you are at 1500'+ and still having resistance hole without one. Rings that give (useful) stats or combat abilities or other missing vital abilities like SI and FA do trump it though.

High AC helps quite a bit in melee against orcs early. 50 or so AC is significantly better than going naked, also with high AC and high saving throw combo helps against paralyzers quite a bit if you don't have FA.

[Derakon]

I don't want to jump on the band wagon, but rings of protection aren't very useful in my opinion. Almost any other ring is going to trump it. =resist fire or cold etc.

Is this true for other people or am I missing something with =protection? It's almost always squelched as soon as I find them.

Think about where you're taking damage in the early game. How much of it is elemental? How much of it is in melee? Of the monsters that have elemental attacks, are any of them doing significant amounts of damage?

The early game is all about getting whacked in the face repeatedly. Rings of Protection help with that. Elemental resistances don't.

[fizzix]

AC is underestimated by allmost everyone here. It can protect against many nasty melee attacks very well.

It's legacy. If you look back to historical advice you'll see stuff like, "Rings of Protection are entirely useless, you're better off wearing a ring of feather falling." Rings of protection are more useful now, but the legacy mindset still exists for many people.

[PowerDiver]

It's legacy. If you look back to historical advice you'll see stuff like, "Rings of Protection are entirely useless, you're better off wearing a ring of feather falling." Rings of protection are more useful now, but the legacy mindset still exists for many people.

Rings of protection are still mostly useless, but for a different reason. They don't compare to a ring of the dog or a ring of reckless attacks. It is more valuable to kill a monster one round earlier, compared even to reducing the monster hits on you by say 25%.

There was also the rewrite of combat rules and general AC inflation. I believe that the value of AC+10 in 3.3 is significantly less than it was in 3.2, and it is definitely worth a whole lot less than it was in 3.0.

[bulian]

There was also the rewrite of combat rules and general AC inflation. I believe that the value of AC+10 in 3.3 is significantly less than it was in 3.2, and it is definitely worth a whole lot less than it was in 3.0.

Should minor AC bonuses be reexamined, I think bonuses on a few other items should be revisited. For example, "Magi, defender, and holy avenger weapons come to mind as having laughable AC bonuses. Not that off armor combat protections should necessarily be huge, but the bonus should either be a consideration on an item or not be on the item. For example, a +4 AC on a blade of chaos HA is a little silly and has no impact on the decision to use that weapon or not. Something in the range of +20 might factor into a decision on whether to use an item found at DL70, but +4 bonus never will.

That being said, I think the bonuses on =protection are about right if one assumes the rings are useful only until ~DL15. I also buy =feather falling and "slow digestion as part of my starting kit when available.

[exordis]

So when I make a new character I've been going in and buying as much armour as I can afford after getting a ?Phasedoor and !CLW.

Is this the best use of my money or should I look to purchase something entirely different?

[UglySquirrell]

I never bother buying armor unless its ego, or I have extra cash. Buy any escape gear you can afford, get at least 10 phase doors a scroll of recall, satisfy hunger and speed potions if there available. Save you're money for a wand of sleep, staffs of teleportation and identify, you'll find armor enough in the dungeon, and most of the early creatures should die before doing significant damage. Just watch out for and have an escape planned. When you see large groups of monsters.

[fizzix]

Another good early buy are flasks of oil. You can throw these for damage and usually can survive your first encounter with maggot's dogs or novice warriors with very weak characters.

[buzzkill]

Is this the best use of my money or should I look to purchase something entirely different?

CLW and phase will get you to about level 10 or so. After that upgrade to CSW, or better yet CCW and add teleportation to the mix. That will get you to about DL30 or so. If available, always have at least 1 tele level or deep descent on hand (even sell useful stuff to buy one if you have to). A potion of speed can also save your life and/or give you the boost needed to kill an otherwise invincible unique.

Consider scrolls of Detect Treasure (and items), esp for your initial dive. They're laughably cheap considering their usefulness. I never leave town without at least 10 or so.

[exordis]

So here we go again.
I've dived slower than I did last game, managed to get some kills on some uniques who actually dropped a couple of decent items. I'm not sure if I should be sitting around DL13-14 or if I should be heading down.

Very few teleport scrolls and !CCW in town so far but I did pick up a couple of the ?deep decent which have saved my life on at least one occasion.

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

I think I really need weapons that will give me more damage. Oh how I wish it had been a sling of might instead of accuracy.

[buzzkill]

Looking good. Phase and shoot for tougher enemies. Probe demons with the trident. Now just keep trying to avoid those situations in which you need to use deep descent. You could probably go deeper if you wanted to.

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.