Returning Player

[tprice]

I recently got the Angband bug again and downloaded the newest version (3.5) on Thursday. Boy a bunch of changes since i last played in 3.2 about 4 years ago. I got myself killed really fast a few times (playing while tired in a cramped seat on an airplane isn't the best way to learn a new version ;-)) so I started save scumming a bit while i figure out all these changes. See the character dump on the ladder for my progress. I haven't died in a good while so I think i'm making progress. Though after i uploaded the character I realized I named him with the wrong version number .

A resistance shield on DL10 from an Orc unique and Wormtongue dropping a HA Cutlass on DL16 were great early drops that have helped speed me along. i bough a nice stack of Iron Shot of Venom from the BM that were my main Unique killing weapons, especially once I got a Sling of Extra Might but breakage is whittling down the stack

I didn't find ANY scrolls or staves of ID until just recently, even the stores were out. But the newer pseudo ID and improved squelching (I really like the change!) meant i wasn't as hampered as I thought i would be by that lack of ID. Stores only buying for ID purposes, not as much for sale, and the aforementioned improvements to pseudo ID and squelch have really changed my game play. I don't go back to town nearly as much, just keep moving deeper most of the time and not worrying about my gold supply. Its taken me a while to get used to it but I think this is a great improvement after a couple days of playing.

My current dilemma is the 3 different great launchers i recently found. All do much more damage than my HA does and range is always a Good Thing (tm). my problem is I'm not sure which to use and which to dump. I need the pack room and the weight.

Right now its time to break for a bit, charge up the laptop, check in on the wife, eat food for the first time in 6 hours, and see if anyone has any advice before diving back into the dungeons...

Thomas Price
aka The Bookworm

[Monkey Face]

Welcome back!

Given your high wisdom and spell points, I would rely primarily on Orb of Draining rather than a launcher. Orb should have a 1% failure rate so it's more reliable than the launchers. It also does damage to multiple monsters as long as they are close to each other.

Of the launchers, it's probably best to save all 3 (with two at home for now) so you can vary depending on what your best type of ammo is at any given time.

[tprice]

Thanks for the advice. I decided to keep the Xbow for now since it was doing the most damage but dumped the other launchers in my house in case of a great ammo find.

I just put up a new dump for the character (how do i keep from duplicating when i do that? ) and that last level (DL31) the RNG really liked me with multiple artifacts and ego items mostly off uniques.

I swapped out my Blue DSM for some Elvenkind armor with much better protection though i'll miss that 150point ball attack.

Since OoD is such a big part of a priests arsenal I'm thinking that I'll keep using that HA for my main weapon for the extra Wis/SP and swap out to Forasgal when i am forced to Melee for the extra blows/damage.

I don't know if rods of treasure location are new or they just didn't detect items before but I'm finding them very useful this game. Combined with Detect doors/traps/stairs and Sense Surroundings I'm able to skip much of a level to find the items on the floor. This feels much different from my old habits of meticulous clearing every corner of the floor so I didn't miss an artifact. Feels a lot less tedious and faster but I'm still surviving well even though I'm going down faster than I used to in the old days.

[Monkey Face]

Treasure Detection is a combination of the old Treasure Detection which detected gold and Object Detection. However, you'll notice it doesn't tell you the specific items you're seeing, just that there is something (and if it's something you've squelched, it disappears when you see it). The exceptions to this are the rogue spell of Treasure Detection and potions of Enlightenment which give the specific items.

Over the last few years, the general play style recommended here has changed to one of dive as quickly as possible, avoid what can kill you, and get your experience from safer monsters.

[Bogatyr]

Over the last few years, the general play style recommended here has changed to one of dive as quickly as possible, avoid what can kill you, and get your experience from safer monsters.

That's taken me quite some time to get used to. I absolutely can't stand insta-(offscreen)-death, so I'm typically much slower and more careful. But I'm adjusting: once I acquire enough stealth and half-decent resists, I'm starting to dive much sooner. I've also really started paying attention to "choose your fights carefully", and now walk around with a stack of rods of probing and avoid anything with attacks I can't handle or that summon. It's hard, though, still to judge since you don't know the damage value of a monster's attack until you're hit by it. So I generally avoid all breathers unless it's a standard element and I'm double resisted. Particularly when I'm a puny-hitpointed mage.

[tprice]

I Update my dump after my first major vault. It had some nasty OOD breathers in it that I managed to TO one at a time. Luckily there was a ring of digging in vault to let me get some range for when i had to "pop the cork" in the impenetrable inner wall. I am keeping that on hand!

The biggest finds were Evenstar and Eriril, FINALLY something worthy of replacing that HA that Wormtongue dropped 25DL ago! Eriril frees up a slot and weight by replacing all the Staff of ID while keeping my WIS up and giving me SI.

I'm still probably not diving fast enough since i keep checking out all the Red Stars from the detection rods but I'm not playing the same depth over and over like i used to in the "old days" I upgraded from Moria to Angband in the early 2.7.x days and drop in every 2 or 3 years for a few months of intense playing before getting distracted by life again.

[tprice]

Another update after a bit more time in the depths. OoD is doing so much damage now and i have so much mana I just decided to leave behind my swap-able weapon to fee up pack space. I'm considering dropping most of my quiver as well...

So far I haven't been insta-killed but a few times have been very close, thank you teleport!

I'm stockpiling !Healing, !*healing*, and !restore mana back home for the end game. just found a !Life in the BM as well. Anything else i should stockpile?

[tprice]

PS. I must say that the floor layouts are MUCH more interesting than when i was last playing in 3.2 and that had been a big improvement over the 3.0 and earlier versions.

I'm liking all the interesting room shapes, the cavern levels, and the one time I've hit a labyrinth. It is really helping with the "its all the same floor, more rectangular rooms" problem old versions used to have.

So Thanks and Kudos to all that helped with the improvements!

[Ingwe Ingweron]

I'm stockpiling !Healing, !*healing*, and !restore mana back home for the end game. just found a !Life in the BM as well. Anything else i should stockpile?

If I recall, you are playing a dwarf priest? You will have massive healing powers by the end-game, so stockpiling that isn't as useful or necessary as it is for other classes. Maybe !*Healing* and !Life to keep mana costs down in the final fight, but regular !Healing you have low enough mana costs that I'd suggest carrying them for use on your way down and rely on Healing spells in the final fights.

Things I think priests should stockpile for the final battle: ?Banishment, ?Mass Banishment, ?Destruction, !Speed, and !Restore Mana, then !*Healing* and !Life if desired. Also maybe some !Berserk Strength and !Heroism to quaff down before the final fights to buff up to-hit chances.

[tprice]

THAT was a scary trip down. first was a level with 3 uniques I couldn't handle and a Hydra Pit. i scampered around the edges teleporting like crazy and then just left the level after finding a ring of resist poison to fill a gap in the character. The level feeling was right when it called it Murderous!

The NEXT level starts me right next to a Greater Vault that took up about half the level. I was able to use a Scroll of Banishment to get rid of all the non Unique D's (I can handle some of the Ancient Dragons but not the Wyrms) but there were a few left like Smaug that would one shot me. Luckily the areas they were in didn't seem to have any items in them according to my rods of TD. I carefully dug my way around TOing the Balrogs and a couple other Unique and came out with some nice new loot.

Oh, did i mention one of the uniques on that first level had drained most of the charges from my TO wands? Fixed that as soon as i got back from town from the vault!

[tprice]

What depth do the dungeon books start dropping for priests? I've seen a few red books but just the basic 4 green books so far at DL 45 max.

[Derakon]

What depth do the dungeon books start dropping for priests? I've seen a few red books but just the basic 4 green books so far at DL 45 max.

The priest books are basically similar in depth to the mage books, so it's just bad luck that you haven't gotten any yet. It's also a common player complaint that the wrong spellbooks always show up first -- red if you're a priest, green if you're a mage.

[tprice]

Well i just found a copy of Godly Insights in the BM and snapped it up fast! Still haven't spotted any of them down in the dungeon... Lots of useful spells in this book that could replace a number of my rods et al.

I see that it cant be harmed by the basic elements which is good, but can it be stolen? aka now that i have it is it safe to drop the rods of Detect Treasure, Probing, etc to free up space in my backpack?

[Derakon]

I believe anything in your backpack can be stolen, including artifacts. Once you hit DEX of 18/150, you become theftproof, and odds are pretty low above that point. Also there are very few thieves at this point in the game -- the only ones at all likely to survive to melee range are Master Rogues (only steal gold), Master Thieves (steals gold and an item), and Harowen the Black Hand (steals gold and an item). Harowen has no mobility options or spells besides Summon Traps, though, so he can be killed pretty easily via Shoot 'n Scoot if you can cope with his speed.

[tprice]

Well I decided to chance it based on your reply and dumped my detection and probing rods to free up some space in my backpack.

The next floor was fairly nice to me, with a RoS +8, and a few artifacts that I'm pondering swapping to. See the updated ladder dump if you are interested in giving me advice.

I'm not shooting arrows/bolts much any more so i dumped the stash at my house to free up space.

Back to the dungeons feeling much better about things now that i have speed greater than 10.