A Newbie says hello! (Questions inside)

[Oramin]

I never bother with Rods of Curing; Rods of Treasure Detection, however, are useful. They can let you see if you want to bother with a particularly dangerous room by seeing the treasure that is already on the ground.

Extra Might, IIRC, gives you a +1 to the (x N) multiplier, so that is quite handy. The problem, however, is that you're a Ranger. You get extra shots with Bows and not Crossbows. So even though the Crossbow might look like a hands down winner, be sure to 'I'nspect for damage/round.

Edit:

I just looked at the dump. Does DSM no longer have a breath weapon component for 3.4.x? If so, boooooo - that's been around for as long as I can remember playing the game.

[Alice]

I found the cutlass 'Gondricam'! It was just laying on the ground looking very lonely.

This solves my paralysis problem without sacrificing my ability to see invisible. 4 dex will go a long way towards getting extra hits, also.

Oramin: I'll sell the -Curing when I get back into town, as well as the obsoleted =FA. The crossbow is much better than my bow at the moment, but once I find a comparable weapon that I get extra shots with, I'll use that instead.

[Oramin]

Congrats! Gondricam is one of those items that I always find too late to have a use for but I've always wanted to find it early on.

Hold off on selling the Rod of Curing. Check to see if it cures Hallucination. If it does and nothing else you have does, you might want to hold on to it. Not essential, so if you already sold it, don't feel you need to buy it back.

[Alice]

Congrats! Gondricam is one of those items that I always find too late to have a use for but I've always wanted to find it early on.

Hold off on selling the Rod of Curing. Check to see if it cures Hallucination. If it does and nothing else you have does, you might want to hold on to it. Not essential, so if you already sold it, don't feel you need to buy it back.

-Curing does not cure hallucinations, so I'll go ahead and get rid of it. I just got back into town now after finally killing Azog (and his son Bolg, minutes later).
-TO was on the level with Azog, which made this run even better! I'll go ahead and update to the ladder before managing my inventory for the next run.

[Derakon]

I recommend keeping =FreeAction for now, in case you find a better weapon before you find an alternate source of Free Action.

And yeah, Rods of Curing are junk, mostly because Cure Serious Wounds does everything they do and more, with no failure rate.

[Alice]

I had already sold it before you said that. I might come across another one, but my inventory is so crowded with other fail-safes that I may not have room for it, lol.

I found Chain Mail of Arvedui, so I put it on (naturally). I'm a little sad to see the cold-ball activation of my DSM go, but the benefits if the new armor outweigh that AFAIK. Redundant rBase frees my amulet slot now, in any case. Amulet of Weaponmastery (+2, +2) aww, yes. :>

@Oramin: Mim was not that bad when I fought him. He did have a nasty acid ball attack, but I guess rAcid made it easier on me (however, not so much for my poor items).

[Derakon]

I was thinking you'd put the ring in your home. No need for it to clutter up your inventory.

[Alice]

I did find a replacement =FA, which is nice. It's in my home as you suggested.

My identify staff burned up in fire down in the dungeon, so I played jewelery roulette and took some unknown rings up to the surface to appraise. I got a RoS<+6> out of it! :3

Currently I am descending down to around 1600', and I am deathly afraid of Weights. Are there specific ones to avoid, and do they all drain experience? I've encountered an Emperor Weight not too long ago and I gave him lots of space.

Edit: This thread has become a chronicle of my descent with an ear for advice. Was it inappropriate of me to repurpose it in this way?

[Derakon]

Don't really worry about staying on-topic around here. Threads inevitably wander.

Basically all undead will drain experience in melee. Honestly I wouldn't worry too much about it; it's a bit of a pain, sure, but as long as you don't hang out in melee too long you're not going to lose more than a level or maybe two. Your power comes much more from your gear than from your levels, so experience drain doesn't hurt you much. It just means you'll gain your next level more slowly since 90% of your gained experience goes to replacing the lost experience (the remaining 10% is applied to your max experience).

[Deof Movestofca]

After this message, we'll be right back...

Not that tough if you play conservatively - by the time you reach him, he's fairly easy.

While I tend to play conservatively myself, the main problem with such an approach is not to get too complacent when reaching a level with "Danger, Will Robinson"-type feelings. My most recent YASD involved such a vault with a Dracolich, another heavy-hitter type dragon, and a unique (I was at probably the highest character level I ever reached, so at that point, nothing else in the vault was more annoyance-type monsters than real threats). Took out the first dragon-type, who got me down to ~250 hp. Went to rest awhile before taking out the second, who was a bit tougher and reduced me to ~200 hp. So after another convalescence, I go after the unique... the problem being that I was so stoked over meeting and beating the aforementioned dragolich and his buddy for the first time that I fail to realize it's a unique and I'm paying more attention to how much more damage I have to do to him before I finish him off than I am to how much more damage he has to do to me before he finishes me off. Next thing I know, I'm taking a dirt nap. And the really sad part of the whole thing is 1) I probably had enough healing potions on me that if I had done a "'port (or even phase), heal, and return" routine on him or 2) since I think I out-speeded him, "jab, backstep, let him come to me and repeat" number, I probably would have beaten him. But I suppose such are the vagaries of Angband.

But now, back to Alice's quest....

[Alice]

Well, I died. The Patriarch made short work of me, lol. I should not be so complacent, especially having so many safety items! He did not really do much for the first few rounds, and then points at me and curses. D: Tricky Patriarch...

Final ladder dump has been posted for your viewing pleasure. I suppose it's YASD but this was a record for me--clvl 29!

[Oramin]

I had already sold it before you said that. I might come across another one, but my inventory is so crowded with other fail-safes that I may not have room for it, lol.

I found Chain Mail of Arvedui, so I put it on (naturally). I'm a little sad to see the cold-ball activation of my DSM go, but the benefits if the new armor outweigh that AFAIK. Redundant rBase frees my amulet slot now, in any case. Amulet of Weaponmastery (+2, +2) aww, yes. :>

@Oramin: Mim was not that bad when I fought him. He did have a nasty acid ball attack, but I guess rAcid made it easier on me (however, not so much for my poor items).

It depends on how good your Ranged attacks are; I still have nightmares about killing him with my Gnome Mage since he has resistance to all the elements and Magic Missile was taking forever.

[Derakon]

It depends on how good your Ranged attacks are; I still have nightmares about killing him with my Gnome Mage since he has resistance to all the elements and Magic Missile was taking forever.

The takeaway lesson here is to not bother killing him. Fights in Angband can always be put off until later when you're better equipped; if you're having trouble and not enjoying yourself you might as well just skip it for now.

[Oramin]

The takeaway lesson here is to not bother killing him. Fights in Angband can always be put off until later when you're better equipped; if you're having trouble and not enjoying yourself you might as well just skip it for now.

1. Who said I wasn't having fun? If it ain't insanely difficult, it ain't worth doing (check out "The Henchidiot Challenge" thread at The Amazon Basin). My apologies to the grammar police.

2. In truth, Mim was more annoying than difficult even with my Mage. The main problem is that I don't want him trashing my gear so I have to play keepaway. He's just relatively more difficult than the other Uniques at the same depth. If I happened to be in serious danger, trust me, I would have ended the fight.

[Timo Pietilä]

I recommend keeping =FreeAction for now, in case you find a better weapon before you find an alternate source of Free Action.

And yeah, Rods of Curing are junk, mostly because Cure Serious Wounds does everything they do and more, with no failure rate.

I use those in early game. They are useless in combat, but afterwards I can use single turn to fix poison or cuts without using healing potions. Saves me some potions that way.

Of course if you have lack of inventory space then those are (almost) first to go.