Finally getting the hang of warrior...

[Bogatyr]

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=16903

Grok the half-troll warrior finally has gotten somewhere in Angband. I'm pretty much a staunch mage player, but have toyed with a priest (seemed like a pretty easy win with all the healing) and have a great rogue going but haven't finished with him yet.

The Balrog of Moria dropped Ringil and Anglarang, and Harowen dropped a RoS+8 all on the same level. This is only the second time in decades of on-and-off play that Ringil has showed up.

Grok early on found an ESP sword, and recently an ESP helmet so that most probably had a lot to do with his survival so far because see invisible came very late. With a shield of preservation his key stats are all protected so undead are not an issue any more.

I miss the utility magic of the mage but being able to stand in close combat with uniques and defeat them in straight melee is a welcome novelty.

I look forward to -Detection so I can dump all the individual detect rods and free up some more inventory for ?teleport and ?_speed items.

I will probably put Elendil back at home for the True Seeing lantern for pBlind. Any other suggestions welcome!

[donalde]

couple of survival tricks for warrior:
1) use antisummoning corridor and pillar dance ... a lot!
2) preservation shield is only good until you come up with thorin or dwarven shield... I always try to get damage up
3) no PStun, so avoid anything that breathes hellfire/plasma - plasma hound pack will knock you out quickly
4) be very carefull on pits, some nasties can teleport to, and then you find yourself in middle of pit, in worst case blinded

[Estie]

With ESP, I dont insist on see invis in my gear; the only thing that can get nasty are Qs, so when something summons that I cant see, I leave the level. With rods of detection even that isnt necessary. By the time you want to replace Ringil, youll likely have multiple sources of SI from your worn gear

You can safely sell all of your melee weapons, nothing of what you have is better than Ringil.

[Bogatyr]

Thanks for the hints!

couple of survival tricks for warrior:
1) use antisummoning corridor and pillar dance ... a lot!

I love ASCs and am a pillar dancing MOFO -- was just waiting for enough speed. Pillar dancing is essential for a mage who just can't take the damage, so that's already part of my tactics. I like digging out ideal ASCs for a fight -- for this reason I'll probably keep the mattock of earthquakes for quick digging, although I could switch to a =Digging.

You can safely sell all of your melee weapons, nothing of what you have is better than Ringil.

Yeah, I haven't been back to town yet. I really like the +2 attack poison brand short sword but +10 speed from Ringil and its slay everything in addition to frost brand pretty much makes it the ideal weapon until I find GlaiveOfPain or Calris or some other massive damage dealer. More speed enables pillar dancing and absolute damage then is less critical. I'll certainly donate (I play no sell) all the weapons currently at home now to the urchins.

I'm really stoked to find Ringil and a bunch of speed recently

[Derakon]

I hope you "donate" to urchins by throwing the weapons at them.

Remember that elemental brands only multiply the dice of the weapon. A poison brand on a 1d7 weapon isn't all that significant (though +2 attacks is nice). On the flipside, Ringil's 4d5 dice makes its slays pretty powerful.

This logic for applying elemental brands is also why, back when Rings of Acid, etc. branded your melee, a favored weapon for killing Sauron was the Glaive of Pain paired with a Ring of Acid. 9d6*3 is a huge damage bonus.

[donalde]

Thanks for the hints!


I love ASCs and am a pillar dancing MOFO -- was just waiting for enough speed. Pillar dancing is essential for a mage who just can't take the damage, so that's already part of my tactics. I like digging out ideal ASCs for a fight -- for this reason I'll probably keep the mattock of earthquakes for quick digging, although I could switch to a =Digging.

I'd say =oDIgging is better, as it activates also on stone to mud, enabling you to open pits / nest from far away and lure inhabitants out (or kill them from distance)

For pillar dancing, you only need speed advantage, you can pillar dance anything that isn't moving +30 speed (only very few of those). At one point on my latest warrior my pillar dancing was 15 steps and one swing, then repeat

[Philip]

Remember, you don't actually have to kill things. As long as you have Teleport Other, everything should only be killed if it worthwhile to do so. Run away before you're a turn from death, too. If that means running away before fighting, so be it.

[PowerWyrm]

2) preservation shield is only good until you come up with thorin or dwarven shield... I always try to get damage up

In 3.5, the best shield for a warrior is probably Haradrim. Gives +5 todam and doesn't aggravate anymore.

[Bogatyr]

I hope you "donate" to urchins by throwing the weapons at them.

But of course....

Remember that elemental brands only multiply the dice of the weapon. A poison brand on a 1d7 weapon isn't all that significant (though +2 attacks is nice). On the flipside, Ringil's 4d5 dice makes its slays pretty powerful.

Yes but still Dagmor was previously the highest avg damage in my collection before Ringil, at least when I had the =Damage+11 wielded. The other nice thing about 7 attacks is you are more or less guaranteed to kill weaker opponents in one round with all the extra chances to hit, so it makes thinning out crowds fast.

[Odd pillar dancing rhythms]

Yeah, I killed the Maia of the sun yesterday (tough with all the plasma shots) in a pillar dance and it was one of those odd 3-2 rhythms that still wasn't perfectly accurate. I hate those dances where it takes you the entire duration of your haste spell/potion to figure out the opponent's pillar dance rhythm!