My newbie experience on the game

[Azrad]

Hmm, so should I keep using Ringil, or should I stick to potions?

[Raajaton]

If you have enough !speed for the final fight to keep yourself above +30 speed the entire time, and another weapon offers better stats / damage / resist then I would forget Ringil. Having anything beyond +30 speed barely helps you, so you're better off replacing that with anything else that offers an improvement in other areas.

On a side note I've been playing for years and I've never found Ringil, so damn you!

[Derakon]

If you have enough !speed for the final fight to keep yourself above +30 speed the entire time, and another weapon offers better stats / damage / resist then I would forget Ringil. Having anything beyond +30 speed barely helps you, so you're better off replacing that with anything else that offers an improvement in other areas.

It's not that it barely helps you, it's more that proportionately it helps you less than lower speed levels, due to diminishing returns. Going from +30 to +40 speed makes you 10.5% faster, which is a significant difference...but probably not significant enough to be worth sacrificing 25% of your weapon damage, for example. Similarly going from +40 to +50 is a 7% increase in speed.

The reason why +30 is considered the minimum speed level is to ensure that Morgoth can't double-move you.

[DeusIrae]

Hmm, so should I keep using Ringil, or should I stick to potions?

I'd also opt for the better damage, though this is really not so much an either/or (especially once you get staves/rods of speed, which should be happening soon. How deep are you?)

Funnily enough, I'm also playing a paladin at the moment -- my first real run with the class -- and got the Trident of Wrath on, swear to god, dlvl 25, and have been using it ever since, though I've found a Holy Avenger Blade of Chaos that I'll swap in for the fights with Sauron and Morgoth. I also haven't had shards resistance basically ever, which has led to some exciting moments but has more or less worked out OK (still alive on dlvl 91, with 89/97 uniques down, including almost all of the nastiest ones!)

[Timo Pietilä]

OTOH, shard attacks aren't that common. There are hounds and dragons, and a vortex and maybe some uniques.

And Gelugons. +20 speed nasties that are rather common.

[Mondkalb]

And Gelugons. +20 speed nasties that are rather common.

Ah yes, forgot about those.

[Azrad]

Currently at dl84. Nether still gives me a lot of trouble whenever I don't have Ulmo as a weapon. Almost died in a room that had several eye druj. Had to teleport away since I was at half health and I doubt using heal would keep me safe if those eyes fired another volley.

Found a power dragon scale mail. Considering that it protects against a lot of stuff (except for stun, nexus and nether, it seems) and that it has decent AC, I reckon I should keep it and see what I got at home that could work with this one. Still no nether defense aside from Ulmo, aside from Soulkeeper.

Supply-wise, I reckon I have enough, perhaps. At home, and ready for Sauron and Morgoth; 37 potions of *healing*, 7 potions of life, 39 potions of speed, 6 scrolls of banishment, and 7 scrolls of mass banishment.

92 uniques slain, with Gothmog seems to be the strongest one I killed. After I teleported him away, I had a change of heart and canceled that word of recall to go after him. Way too much items spent on that one, and nearly panicked and considered running again after my books on exorcism disappeared.

[Raajaton]

I'm pretty shocked that Gothmog is giving you much trouble after already defeating the Tarrasque and Ungoliant. Those 2 are much tougher than Gothmog. In terms of consumables, you certainly have enough. I've done both Sauron and Morgoth with less than you have currently. I wouldn't stress the lack of nether resist too much, I almost never seem to have it covered by the end of the game, and it doesn't make much of a difference in the final battle.

[Timo Pietilä]

I wouldn't stress the lack of nether resist too much, I almost never seem to have it covered by the end of the game, and it doesn't make much of a difference in the final battle.

All Morgoth attacks that are dangerous are also unresistable. Only when he manages to summon heavy nether breather is when nether could be useful, but usually one of them & Morgoth is enough to kill you resistance or not, so you need to be able to get rid of them by other means anyway (resisted nether can still do 471 points of damage, that's only 79 points less than unresisted).

[Azrad]

I'm pretty shocked that Gothmog is giving you much trouble after already defeating the Tarrasque and Ungoliant. Those 2 are much tougher than Gothmog. In terms of consumables, you certainly have enough. I've done both Sauron and Morgoth with less than you have currently. I wouldn't stress the lack of nether resist too much, I almost never seem to have it covered by the end of the game, and it doesn't make much of a difference in the final battle.

I encountered Gothmog earlier than Tarrasque. The two other Balrogs were also there. Thought of using recall after I teleported Gothmog elsewhere, I did use recall in fact... but I got tempted and decided to cancel recall and fight him instead. Just saying that upon looking at the list of uniques, that Gothmog seemed to be the most out of depth I encountered.

[Azrad]

Well now, got another lucky break as I slowly clear each floor downwards toward the finale. First, I found a necklace of the dwarves on that cavern like level.

Next floor, I get an anxious feeling. Okay, I know the drill by now. It's a small-ish map, and I clear through one vault-like area easily enough - no uniques to bother me, just a couple of drakes. Looking through the rubble I find two uniques there; a very meh Mormegil which I toss out as soon as I see it, and an amulet of Carlammas. Alas, even without the necklace of the dwarves I wouldn't probably use it since I also have the amulet of Ingwe.

So I check the rest of the floor out. Pit of undead/ghosts. This one proved a bit troublesome. I had to lure out most of them into the corridors since there was a couple of skull and eye druj's in the pit, and to me they're far more troublesome than the rest of the group I gotta fight.

Slowly and surely I clear them all out. One of the things I hate the most about pits is sorting out the treasures. Corridors are loaded, and going through each piece of weapon and armor to see if they're ego or uniques. I try to dig out tunnels to give me some nearby room to drop them, so they won't get mixed back in among the ones I still have to check.

Anyway, in the pit room itself. I noticed in the screen that lists items in the floor, I notice an unidentified sapphire ring. Lo and behold, I find something nice. The Ring of Power Vilya.

For the longest time, I used the serpent ring since it provided stat boosts alongside the poison resist. Vilya doesn't boost stealth, but it sure as hell makes up for it with the plus 3 to all five stats, and lightning immunity to boot. And so many other things.

Anyway, got something I need advice on.

With the new ring, and the amulet of the dwarves, these are my stats:

STR: 18/***
INT: 18/150
WIS: 18/150
DEX: 18/***
CON: 18/***

on the other hand, if I choose the ring and the amulet of Ingwe instead
STR: 18/***
INT: 18/180
WIS: 18/180
DEX: 18/***
CON: 18/210

Constitution is one point lower in exchange for higher intelligence and wisdom. Which one should I choose?

[Mondkalb]

Depends on how many hitpoints you loose/gain and how many mana points you loose/gain otoh.

You could post your char on the ladder, that would make it a lot easier to discuss equipment choices.

[Azrad]

Done, I think. I have to point out that while it's kinda odd to use the same username as my current character, I've used Azrad as a default name on a lot of other games, because I am terrible at thinking up new names.

[fizzix]

I don't think there is any difference between Con 210 and 200, however you will get extra SP between 150 and 180 though, so I'd go that route. INT isn't important for you, so that's not an important consideration. The question is are those SP worth it to give up the advantages of Vilya (lightning immunity is fairly unimportant though) and it probably comes down to personal preference.

[Azrad]

Hmm, I suppose I'm leaning more on having more health than mana at the moment. I got a very nice amount of restore mana potions, which should give me a ton of heals in case I need it.