Kinda new to Angband...what do you think of this approach?

[wobbly]

In regards to grinding vs diving I'd say:

If your having trouble staying alive for long - dive less, grind more.

If your getting bored too easily with enemies being too easy - grind less, dive more.

[DeusIrae]

You can do fine not-diving, certainly at the stage you're at; diving will get you stronger faster and is more fun once you know the game better, but definitely not required.

All of the advice so far is good, but here are a couple of other ideas:

-It can be helpful to buy at least one !CLW in town before you go in, so that you know what those look like when you find them. It's not hard to ID them by use or guess what they are based on stacking, but it takes some of the guesswork out and sometimes you run into a bad situation before you get a chance to do much use-IDing.

-If you're playing a ranger, the asymmetric line of sight might be a really helpful thing to know about -- basically, sometimes you can see (and attack) a monster, when they can't see/attack you (or vice versa, of course, so knowing about this can also help you avoid some un-fun ambushes). The most common place this happens is when there's a hockey-stick arrangement next to a wall, like so:

.....
.@...
###k#

You can see the kobold and get some free bow-shots in, but he can't return the favor.

-The advice about learning the monsters is good, though honestly in the first ten levels it doesn't matter that much -- you'll know right off the bat if a baddie is fast, out of depth, or a unique, and there isn't that much else going on in those levels that you need to worry about. I wouldn't be shy about turning on the monster knowledge cheat or looking things up in the database here. Also, one thing to know is that you can pass old characters' monster memory on to your new character, by opening the file of your previous dead character rather than starting a new one each time. You can still change race/class/stats etc., so it doesn't lock you into anything, and means you're not always scratching your head trying to remember how monsters you've fought before, but not for a while, work.

Good luck!

[debo]

Here is everything you need to know about angband monsters:
- everything before dl30 does acid damage
- everything after dl30 drains life, and probably charges
- some of those things breathe for a lot of damage

[Malak Darkhunter]

That's a straw man if ever I saw one .

I can't speak for anyone else, but I dive(ish) because it makes the game more fun. There's a lot more excitement in always being a hair's breadth away from death and always being slightly out of your depth. The other way lies slaughtering endless hordes of orcs and then dying anyway to a Drolem breath because you got used to not having to detect and if necessasry avoid stuff further down.

Btw, there are degrees of diving. You could be actively looking for the down-stairs, you could have a rule of thumb that says "I will take the first/second/third down-stairs I happen upon", etc.

I dive when prudent and character ability deems it possible to do, if I feel underpowered I wait and build up the character first, If I feel overpowered I might dive 10-20 levels at a time.

[Ehrblast]

Really, lots of great info and advice here, thanks so much. Im taking it all to heart, but I must say what really gave me perspective was watching the lets Play Angband on Youtube [sorry, forgot the fellows name]. Truth was, I was getting a little bored with my initial approach, likely ingrained from console JRPG's . For kicks, I created a new character, and just went for it. Not over my head, but just pushing the envelope of my characters abilities, and what do I find but that I survive the encounters and Im leveling much more quickly, efficiently. And it became loads more fun. In a moment, acquiring items for use later quickly took a back seat, as they game seems to provide just what I need for the moment. Got to acknowledge the dev's and maintainer for that. Just great! For right now I bookmarked this thread so I can peruse all your input while I gain new confidence in my playing.
Truly, all your input really opened up the game for me.
And now I know for sure what I'll be doing for the next months/years.

[Mondkalb]

Probably time spent into quick diving or at least a fast paced approach to the game is better invested than hours of grinding on low levels. If you die on level 15 or 20 you might have spent about an hour in the first case but probably several hours in the second case. Your char would be dead anyway.
Also, most likely you will learn more the second way. You will progress further every time and you will encounter more interesting items and monsters. Diving is the best medicine against the weariness and frustration that comes with reliving the first shallow levels over and over.

[Zikke]

Diving is the best medicine against the weariness and frustration that comes with reliving the first shallow levels over and over.

And after that, self-handicap options.


And after that, variants.

[Mondkalb]

And after that, variants.

That's why I love FAangband. There is always something surprising.