A Few Questions/Observations From an Old Player

[Derakon]

Yeah, the game has no idea what character you played last; you have to tell it.

[Oramin]

Ok, I started a new character which, IIRC, I did with my previous wins. Then when I started playing I found out that I was no longer using the Rogue keyset.

Should I have done "Open" instead of "New"?

Edit:

And my monster memory is wiped out. Great. Just great.

Note to self, never ever select "New" unless making an entirely new character.

[Oramin]

For the curious, I tweaked my gear so I could use Aule on Sauron and I quickly wiped him out. I then spent a bunch of time on L98/L99 to try to find Fingolfin with no luck but Aule certainly made killing Great Wyrm easy.

I then swapped Aule out for Eonwe for the final battle with Morgoth since I wasn't going to melee with him. After a Sling of Buckland with Mithril Bullets of Holy Might and a few Wands of Annihilation, Morgoth died.

So, that makes 3 of the last 4 as winners. Dwarf Priest, Gnome Mage, and Half-Troll Warrior.

Hmm, Hobbit Rogue or another try with the High Elf Ranger ...

[Timo Pietilä]

the level feelings don't guarantee you anything.

Except when playing preserve off, then anything other than "special" feeling tells you that there is no artifacts onto floor (monsters might still drop them).

[Oramin]

Ok, thanks. This is my first endgame character that hasn't found Fingolfin and the first one that would actually benefit from using it. When I spotted those Cesti, I was hoping ...

[Derakon]

Ignore level feelings. In fact, turn them off. They don't add anything to the game IMO, and their purpose is completely misguided (telling the player what levels are "worth exploring").

That mini-rant over, no, the level feelings don't guarantee you anything. A Superb feeling just means that the loot is of significantly above-average quality, but that could be from a large number of slightly good items just as easily as it could be from one really good item. I believe the presence of vaults also boosts the level feeling independent of their contents, so a sufficiently awesome vault could give you a Superb feeling even if its contents randomly ended up being underwhelming.

Monsters can't pick up artifacts, so banishing is safe (though you will lose any other loot they were carrying, of course). Destruction will remove artifacts from the level if they're in the blast radius.

[Oramin]

Hmm, is it possible to get a "Superb" feeling without any artifacts? I just had it for a L99 level with a major vault (and an Undead room). After clearing both, I found no artifacts.

The Undead got immediately Mass Banished since I was dropped right next to them and so they didn't have the chance to pick stuff up. The major vault I Mass Banished half of the room before it woke up and killed the other half.

Admittedly, there's a lot of good loot, just no artifacts.

[Egavactip]

I am pretty sure I have come across mazes which only had one stair.

[Oramin]

Aren't the mini-maps (I've seen them called pac-man levels) supposed to have a minimum of 1 of each type of stairs?

I just looked and the one I Recalled to seems to have only a downstairs. This is a bit awkward since I happen to be on L99 at the moment and I don't feel like taking on Morgoth just yet. I'm going to pop back upstairs but still...

[Aloysius]

So, I have a choice of Aule at Speed +18
Evil: 564; Undead: 685; Demons: 685; Acid: 685; Dragons: 927; Others: 443

And Eonwe at Speed +25
Evil: 453; Undead: 539; Cold: 539; Demons: 709; Others 368

I have a couple of Rods of Speed so I can bump my Speed up whenever I feel like it.

I also have only Sauron and Morgoth left.

Suggestions?

You can normalize your damage for speed with the energy chart in the speed section of ability.spo (about 40% down the page). If you multiply your damage by the energy given at your speed (which will be the number of actions you can take in 100 game turns), you have the damage you will do in 100 game turns. Sounds awkward, but it makes the math straightforward.

In this case, with only the quest monsters left, you would only care about damage v evil.
Aule @ 18 speed = 15792 dmg v evil/100 game turns
Aule @ 28 = 20868
Eonwe @ 25 = 15855
Eonwe @ 35 = 18120

So I need to ask - is this sort of flat-out spoiler frowned upon?

[Ed_47569]

Oh, and just to make everybody jealous, I just found Bladeturner for the first time

That's the only artefact that I've never, ever found, having played since 2.7.8 or so. Next rarest for me is Doomcaller, which I've found precisely once in that time.

[Oramin]

Yeah, I think for the final two fights I'm going with Aule for Sauron and ranged weapons for Morgoth.

Oh, and just to make everybody jealous, I just found Bladeturner for the first time.

Edit:

Oh, and Sauron casts an Ice Bolt of some type which I believe destroys potions; that is primarily why I want Cold Immunity (for inventory protection) but I should have enough consumables that I don't really need to worry about it at this point.

[Derakon]

Cold is not really relevant for the last two fights; neither Sauron nor Morgoth use it, so the only danger is from summons -- which would be, Huan and dracoliches? There aren't that many big cold breathers in the game.

Eonwe is a good weapon and +2 all stats is also quite nice, but Aule is fantastic in its own right; don't let Eonwe's side benefits blind you to Aule's potential. Remember, the first job of a weapon is to kill your opponents quickly. Everything else is gravy.

[Oramin]

Sure, but then that also changes the damage numbers that I posted since the figures for Aule include the (+x, +x) bonuses from Nenya. As for the stat difference, the physical stats all remain at or above 18:200 (without the +2) while the other stats are in the 18:100 range.

Yes, I could also just swap around Narya and Nenya as needed and use Aule + RoS. I could also swap out Belthronding for Cubragol (although that isn't going to work for the battle against Morgoth since I'm going ranged for *that* fight).

Maybe I'll do the Narya/Nenya swapping; guess I should check out Sauron's attacks.

[Timo Pietilä]

Aule + RoS means I no longer have Cold Immunity. Nenya and Eonwe both provide it. Also, I would lose the +2 All Stats provided by both Nenya and Eonwe.

What does that mean in practice statwise? Couldn't you just use Aule as main weapon and Eonwe as swap for cold-breathing monsters? Or other way around, use Eonwe as main and Aule when there is no cold attacks coming?