Ring of Speed <+9> question

[Cutestory]

*Any* updated guide would be worth reading, even if it's short. I'd gather the details through experience.

[Derakon]

Incidentally, if you want to see more of the game, I highly recommend playing as a half-troll warrior. Sure, they don't get any spells, but they're incredibly durable, their melee is frighteningly effective, and they're very good at ranged combat. Rangers are the most fragile of the hybrid classes; I wouldn't say they're a bad class, but they're probably not the easiest one to learn the game with. Mages have a similar problem, but even worse (because all they can do is spellcasting / magic devices and they crumple like tinfoil if they get into melee).

[Oramin]

Incidentally, if you want to see more of the game, I highly recommend playing as a half-troll warrior. Sure, they don't get any spells, but they're incredibly durable, their melee is frighteningly effective, and they're very good at ranged combat. Rangers are the most fragile of the hybrid classes; I wouldn't say they're a bad class, but they're probably not the easiest one to learn the game with. Mages have a similar problem, but even worse (because all they can do is spellcasting / magic devices and they crumple like tinfoil if they get into melee).

I personally find Rangers easy to play (as long as I don't get surprised by out of depth Ancient Multi-Hued Dragons breathing into my only resistance hole).

As for my Gnome Mage, I used to melee with him all the time; when I started, he frequently used a sling and a bow.

[Derakon]

I personally find Rangers easy to play (as long as I don't get surprised by out of depth Ancient Multi-Hued Dragons breathing into my only resistance hole).

When you're having trouble getting much past 1000', ranger strengths aren't really coming into play all that much (and if you run into an AMHD then something has gone badly wrong!). They have less survivability than rogues or paladins without being appreciably better at spellcasting, don't have the stats to be really good at melee yet, and are generally too low-level to be getting their extra missile shots yet.

As for my Gnome Mage, I used to melee with him all the time; when I started, he frequently used a sling and a bow.

Again, melee in the early game? Maybe against trivially weak enemies, but generally melee as a mage in the before-statgain part of the game is a losing proposition. I mean, I know you play more cautiously than I do and thus will tend to be higher-level for a given depth, but I wouldn't think that'd be enough to make early melee remotely viable since you simply don't have the stats to back it up.

[Oramin]

Both fair comments.

Rangers have both Magic Missile and ranged weapons early on as well as decent melee capabilities. Because of the various damage choices and utility spells, I never really had a problem at early levels with my Rangers in 3.3.2 (CLVL35 and Winner).

With the Gnome Mages (CLVL1 and Winner), it would depend on the gear I had early on. If the melee weapon did significantly more damage than either spells or the ranged weapon, then I would sometimes melee even before stat gain. Most of the time, however, before stat gain, I would rely on spells or ranged attacks; frequently the ranged weapons would deal out more damage than low level spells even taking into account the poor ranged skills of Gnome Mages. That CLVL1 was when I tried to melee a Yellow Mold on L1 of the dungeon; inspired me to make sure that I carried a sling around the next Gnome Mage.

[fizzix]

[QUOTE=Oramin;77581]
With the Gnome Mages (CLVL1 and Winner)...,/QUOTE]

With mages, you actually get a lot of play through devices. It's better to buy a couple wands of MM from the store than try to arch or sling things to death. The only problem is the expense of buying wands. Eventually you start finding them on the floor though.

[Derakon]

Indeed -- remember that you get a bonus to your damage from wands of (magic device skill - level of wand)%. I don't think this is told to you anywhere in game, but it is quite significant, to the extent that an endgame mage should definitely consider using Wands of Annihilation against Morgoth. The DPS of wands in general usually doesn't quite manage what you can pump out with your direct-damage spells, but they're far more efficient mana-wise assuming you can find some breaks in combat to cast Recharge Item.

[Oramin]

Again, good points in general; I used Wands of Annihilation on Morgoth. Also, the high end wands (Wands of Dragon Flame, etc.) should actually do more damage than most of your spells.

However, trust me on this, I ran the numbers for my specific character and the sling(s) worked out better at the beginning (IIRC, one of them was a decent enchantment Sling of Extra Shots).

Edit:

I checked and apparently I was also shooting arrows at Morgoth with my Gnome Mage

Victory!!!

I killed Morgoth this morning. I swapped out Thorin for the Shield of the Haradrim. With my various equipment tweaks (including equipping The One Ring) this meant I left a hole of Sound Resistance. This isn't normally a big issue and I carried it along as a swap anyway. The Haradrim Shield has a bunch of combat bonuses which meant that I was more likely to hit Morgoth with my Arrows of Holy Might and 2 shots/rd from Belthronding.

For those of you wondering why a Mage is using a bow on Morgoth, the damage potential looked to be better than Mana Storm and about equal to the Wands of Annihilation with my device bonus.

I cleared out the area first and then did what I did with my Priest. Shoot Morgoth on approach, Teleport him away when he gets too close, use Banishment and Mass Banishment when he Summons, chug Healing or *Healing* potions when he attacks, recharge Mana when too low.

What can I say, it works.

[Cutestory]

I personally find Rangers easy to play (as long as I don't get surprised by out of depth Ancient Multi-Hued Dragons breathing into my only resistance hole).

You've gotta love a game that produces phrases like "...out of depth Ancient Multi-Hued Dragons breathing into my only resistance hole." I actually lol'd.

I don't want any AMHDs breathing into any of my holes, resistant or not.

[Cutestory]

I've decided to start again from scratch and die a few times with another character before going back to my RoS <+9> character (who will eventually die, I know). I don't want to "waste" such a good roll on "figuring things out."

[Elbereth]

I've decided to start again from scratch and die a few times with another character before going back to my RoS <+9> character (who will eventually die, I know). I don't want to "waste" such a good roll on "figuring things out."

Don't... the zero-th rule of Angband says Never Get Fond Of Your Character. The more you treasure him/her the more his/her death by a white icky thing will hurt when it comes
The RNG doesn't like it when you try to fool it.

I made that mistake and grew very fond of my last good character, who was killed by a dark elven lord. My curses could be heard from Proxima Centauri.
The RNG didn't like my lack of faith and has been punishing me since then with lousy drops. I am really tempted, at this point, to order a T-shirt that says "I killed Farmer Maggot and all I got was a stupid slime mold".

[David B]

Don't... the zero-th rule of Angband says Never Get Fond Of Your Character. The more you treasure him/her the more his/her death by a white icky thing will hurt when it comes
The RNG doesn't like it when you try to fool it.

I made that mistake and grew very fond of my last good character, who was killed by a dark elven lord. My curses could be heard from Proxima Centauri.
The RNG didn't like my lack of faith and has been punishing me since then with lousy drops. I am really tempted, at this point, to order a T-shirt that says "I killed Farmer Maggot and all I got was a stupid slime mold".

Actually, I *did* kill Smeagol, and all I got was a wooden torch.

[Elbereth]

Actually, I *did* kill Smeagol, and all I got was a wooden torch.

I think I got a dagger with no bonus this time around...
Ah, the good old times when Gollum always carried the Phial... I haven't been able to find it a single time since 3.0.9 or thereabouts. The RNG really doesn't like me

[Elbereth]

No, I hadn't killed Gollum yet... just did and got 26gp

[Chud]

Lately I've been trying leave smeagol, farmer maggot, and his dogs alive as long as possible. The dogs are usually the hardest, since they won't leave you alone so sometimes you have to kill them if you want to still take care of something where you are, but sometimes they last awhile. Not too long ago I still saw Grip at DL38 or so (not a good place for a doggie...) :-)

Eventually even the uniques will start to run away from you if your level is enough higher than theirs, which helps if you can spare them that long.