Need some tips on playing Warriors below 2500'

[Goldbug]

I've been playing (half-troll) warriors for a few months now, and I've tried looking at warrior winners on the ladder to try to get some idea of why I mostly can't seem to get past around iLvl 37. I'm finding it really dangerous when I get to around 2550'.

Here are my questions:

1/ Should a warrior carry potions of Resist Fire and Resist Cold to get the temporary reduction from 1/3 to 1/9 damage from monsters who breathe those elements? What about Lightning and Acid?

2/ I've seen that some of the warrior winners I've looked at on the ladder carry potions of Heroism and Berserk Strength. Do those potions really make that much of a difference for a decently but not greatly geared ilvl 37-50 warrior?

3/ Should a warrior perhaps place a greater emphasis on carrying staves of Earthquakes and Destruction than other classes? I like to mostly use rods and wands of Teleport Other to get rid of potentially dangerous opponents, and staves of Teleportation to escape when I don't have TO charges, but it seems that I die a lot because when I teleport myself I inevitably find myself in the midst of a bunch of Gravity Hounds or within breathing range of The Phoenix.

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I've had Ranger, Paladin, and Rogue winners on 3.3 versions (currently playing 3.4.1), but while I can pretty reliably get a 3.4.1 Warrior down to around dlvl 50 and ilvl 35, I usually hit a wall at that point and die.

nb Looking at my history, I have gotten three lucky 3.4.1 Warriors down to around dlvl 90 and ilvl 46, but apparently I didn't learn anything from those experiences, because I haven't been able to repeat them. I don't have a dump of any of those characters, and all my high score list says is that one of them was killed by the Tarrasque, another was killed by a Plasma hound, and the third was killed by an Inertia hound. I suspect they got that far because they had telepathy, but I honestly can't recall what I was doing differently then to what I'm doing now. Maybe those @'s were just really lucky...

Kinda rambling here, but if anyone could explain why things start, IMHO, to get really dangerous for my warriors at around 2500-2550' I'd appreciate it.

[Derakon]

It's that lack of Telepathy that's getting you, honestly. Your big problem is that you have no way to detect things, so you need your items to make up for it. Warriors should be carrying staves of Detect Evil until they get at least one rod of Detection and/or a source of Telepathy.

As you've noticed, teleportation becomes an unreliable escape later on. Look for scrolls of Teleport Level instead. Destruction is also a viable escape, but your success rate on staves is a bit low to be reliable (probably around 88%) and scrolls ideally should be saved for the endgame. That said, Phase Door + Staff of Destruction is a good combination, assuming the phase takes you out of line-of-sight of whatever you're trying to escape. Or starting trying to use your staff before you're one hit away from dying.

[donalde]

Few comments of mine, I have had hT Winners on all classes, hT Warriors is most fun class to play (at least for me). One thing that is a killer is birth options, intelligent monsters and smart packs are nasty, as then you see pack of hounds milling other side of room with no way to get melee with them without getting LoS. I have my share of kills by Gravity. Inertia and Plasma hounds, as well as getting killed by shuffling gear and forgetting FA.

Like derakon said, detection is important, even better if you can detect and have ESP. I have multiple time _*destructed* or _*earh quaked* sections of maps when there are hounds blocking access to other side of map, Gravity, Inertia, Plasma and Time hounds get no mercy. Q's are bit tricky, especially inside of vault, I tend to lean toward MHDSM (Or PDSM if I happen to find one) for breath attack, it allows abusing LoS with ball spell. Stocking !enlighment (and carrying one when entering new level) is a good idea until you get light source which does the trick, either by magic mapping or revealing whole level. That + detection allows you to prepare.

Teleport Other and teleportation soon afterwards is kinda bad idea, at least from my experience.

[Estie]

1. No. The inventory space is better used for other things. Exception: when you are ready to kill nasty elemental breathing uniques like Tarrasque, prepare by carrying appropriate double res source.
Things that do elemental damage are unpleasant to fight in general and should be avoided.

2. I usually get those for the last 2 fights, and that makes them show up in my dumps. If the character has no fear resistance, I carry at least 1 stack of either heroism or berserk, but lvl 30 warriors usually drop them for lack of space. I might carry and use both in the early game before space becomes an issue.

3. For escapes, I try to maintain: 1. one stack of pd scrolls, 2. one source of teleportation (scrolls if I have both res conf and blind, staff otherwise), one stack of ultimate emergency escape (tele level scrolls or destruction scrolls).

My suspicion is that you stay too long on a level. Unless theres a vault you want to crack, theres no reason to explore. Just head for the stairs and pick flowers along the way. For those vault levels, I keep a stack of !enlightenment ready.
Stealth is awesome for short visits. Dont worry about bad base stealth on a troll warrior, with a few stealth items things wont wake up if your stay is short.
I concur with what others have said about importance of telepathy and detection.

[Goldbug]

Thanks for all the tips, people.

I definitely keep Rods of Detection, and equip any Telepathy items I find.

Sounds like I should maybe be diving faster. I tend to hang around at 2500' or so trying to max my CON.

Thanks again.