angband strategy guide

[Derakon]

The damage is ok, but it does NOT work against undead, golem, etc.

So basically it is too much work to check for each enemy if the wand can be used. And if i find them early i am not able to recharge them ... and if i find them late, i usually have same or better damage from other attack forms.

The damage is fantastic, and it works against all living monsters. If you find one early, you can use it to help you take down a tough target (like a 'p' unique in the 2000' range, all of whom are unreasonably dangerous), and if recharging fails, oh well, you still got great use from it. It is flat-out impossible for a mage to ever match the damage they get from a Wand of Annihilation with any other spell, against a single target.

You're focusing on what you can't do; open your mind to the possibilities of what you can do.

[Bogatyr]

It is flat-out impossible for a mage to ever match the damage they get from a Wand of Annihilation with any other spell, against a single target.

Surely you mean without considering dungeon spellbooks!? WoA for a 50th level human mage measured via rod of probing showed it around 375-390 or so? Don't recall the exact amount. There are at least a few spells in Raals and Keleks with max damage well beyond that if you believe the spellbook's damage table. Mana storm can reach over the heads of Morgoth's summons, and Rift can scatter them in addition to not being blocked by them.

[Derakon]

Surely you mean without considering dungeon spellbooks!? WoA for a 50th level human mage measured via rod of probing showed it around 375-390 or so? Don't recall the exact amount. There are at least a few spells in Raals and Keleks with max damage well beyond that if you believe the spellbook's damage table. Mana storm can reach over the heads of Morgoth's summons, and Rift can scatter them in addition to not being blocked by them.

Note I said against a single target. Naturally there are situations in which a different spell is preferable. Wands of Annihilation do 250 base damage, multiplied by (device skill - 60)% (or 1, if device skill is below 60). A 50th-level human mage with maxed INT will have a device skill of 101 from class + 0 from race + 13 from INT = 114, for a 54% boost. That means it does 385 damage per shot, every time (very consistent).

I don't remember exactly how much damage mana storm can do, and it's not readily determinable from the 3.5.0 source (I'm sure the restruct is better!). But I dimly remember that it does something like 10d10+300 at max level, which would mean an average damage per-shot of 355. Moreover, the failure rate on casting Mana Storm is always going to be worse than the failure rate of attempting to use a Wand of Annihilation. All of the other spells have worse damage per cast -- though even with its failure rate, Mana Storm is the best spell-based DPS a mage has.

Eventually you run out of charges on the wands and have to recharge them, which hurts your long-term DPS, but on the other hand, you can do that recharging during breaks in the fight where you can't otherwise attack.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Note I said against a single target. Naturally there are situations in which a different spell is preferable. Wands of Annihilation do 250 base damage, multiplied by (device skill - 60)% (or 1, if device skill is below 60). A 50th-level human mage with maxed INT will have a device skill of 101 from class + 0 from race + 13 from INT = 114, for a 54% boost. That means it does 385 damage per shot, every time (very consistent).

I don't remember exactly how much damage mana storm can do, and it's not readily determinable from the 3.5.0 source (I'm sure the restruct is better!). But I dimly remember that it does something like 10d10+300 at max level, which would mean an average damage per-shot of 355. Moreover, the failure rate on casting Mana Storm is always going to be worse than the failure rate of attempting to use a Wand of Annihilation. All of the other spells have worse damage per cast -- though even with its failure rate, Mana Storm is the best spell-based DPS a mage has.

Eventually you run out of charges on the wands and have to recharge them, which hurts your long-term DPS, but on the other hand, you can do that recharging during breaks in the fight where you can't otherwise attack.

Mana Storm is a straight irresistible 400 dmg, but a mage maxes out at a 14% fail rate at highest level and stats. (400*86% = Average damage 344 and at a high mana cost.)

If I recall Derakon correctly (as I've said before, the calculation isn't apparent from the character/message information screens), Annihilation is 250*1.75 (maxed out magic device skill for mage class and race modifiers) and its lowest fail rate is 5%. (250*1.75*95% = Average damage 415.625 and at zero mana cost.)

So, if you have LOS to Morgoth and are a mage with maxed device modifiers and lowest fail rates and aren't trying to also damage other adjacent monsters, Annihilation wands handily beat out Mana Storm as the choice of magical attack.

[Tibarius]

re: Annihilation vs ManaStorm

Your calculations are totally correct Inge. Even tho i prefer ManaStorm over the wand. It takes one less inventory Slot. And i do not have to care about recharging. Just fire manastorm until mana is empty ... recharge mana with potion or magi staff and then continue to fire manastorm. If Morgoth summons anything ... mass banish ... if he Closes to melee range ... Phase door. If he hurts you, heal up. That is my mage strategy against morgoth.

Basically that is my strategy against anything that moves, once i got ManaStorm castable

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Your calculations are totally correct Inge. Even tho i prefer ManaStorm over the wand. It takes one less inventory Slot. And i do not have to care about recharging. Just fire manastorm until mana is empty ... recharge mana with potion or magi staff and then continue to fire manastorm. If Morgoth summons anything ... mass banish ... if he Closes to melee range ... Phase door. If he hurts you, heal up. That is my mage strategy against morgoth.

Basically that is my strategy against anything that moves, once i got ManaStorm castable

As a mage only, I warehouse annihilation wands for the final two fights (or just the final if I have a good acid attack against Sauron). The damage difference per round is so significant and the lack of mana cost is so appealing I find it well worth the inventory slot in the final battle. With all that extra mana, if he closes to melee range ... Rune of Protection and keep blasting him with the wands, if he summons ... TO, banish, or Mass Banish (unless non-threatening, then just keep on blasting). If he breaks the Rune, phase door, and continue blasting. Annihilation kills the big P fast. Oh, and I never carry any other wands or staves into the final fight. I'm not going to give the enemy free regeneration from draining them.

[Tibarius]

side note

I won the game so far only with mages ... even tho i consider myself very experienced my last rangers all blew away (because of my own stupidness) at CL 48 / 49.

So i thought rangers should it not be at the Moment and i started a thief. Just to Play something different again. And i must say - the playing experience is something totally new (and refreshing). Stealth = Legendary means basically only things that never sleep are a threat to you ... else you can walk through the Levels and seek what fits you Realy cool. I guess the best class to dive fast ...

P.S. The rogue died *whine* --- and i do not know what exactly killed me. I guess i accidentaly casted teleport Level ... what finished me off was a pack of gravity hounds and a skull druji gave me the rest. But there was no message in the window that said anything about spell-casting. Are gravity hounds not detected by telepathy AND by the detection spell of the 3rd mage book?

[Bogatyr]

Mana Storm is a straight irresistible 400 dmg, but a mage maxes out at a 14% fail rate at highest level and stats. (400*86% = Average damage 344 and at a high mana cost.)

If I recall Derakon correctly (as I've said before, the calculation isn't apparent from the character/message information screens), Annihilation is 250*1.75 (maxed out magic device skill for mage class and race modifiers) and its lowest fail rate is 5%. (250*1.75*95% = Average damage 415.625 and at zero mana cost.)

So, if you have LOS to Morgoth and are a mage with maxed device modifiers and lowest fail rates and aren't trying to also damage other adjacent monsters, Annihilation wands handily beat out Mana Storm as the choice of magical attack.

WoA was 385-390 as measured by rod of probing with my level 50 human mage (magic devices: 114)

Keleks:
Mana Storm: 400 @ 14% fail
Chaos Strike: 13d50 @ 0% fail
Rend Soul: 11d50 @ 0% fail

Max damage in all cases exceeds that of WoA, note the claim was "it is flat out impossible for a mage to match the damage against a single target with a spell vs. WoA". Clearly this is not true if what you're looking at is max damage possible in any given strike. Average damage, I'll give you that, but there's a lot to be said for 0% fail, as the RNG does not produce smooth distributions, and we all have experienced cases of 5% fail failing a number of times in a row.

But I do think I will save WoA's for the final fight with Morgoth with my current gnome mage (best device skill!)

A complete accounting would figure in the decay of the stack of WoA due to recharge explosions, which I think would degrade the WoA damage further. I personally experienced in that human mage winner 4 WoA explosions in a row from *Greater* recharging (I'd never use lesser with WoA), (I think on 0 charges but I'm not sure). But I'm convinced that it's a worthwhile carry. WoDL, too, since the damage is about 270-ish, still very respectable compared to Rift and Chaos Strike, *and* you can keep 60+ charges on hand in a stack.

WoDragon's Flame is also very interesting to consider against undead, especially those hurt by fire, it is devastating from a high level mage. Once I no longer care much about experience drain, I will take on and empty undead pits just because they piss me off.

[AnonymousHero]

Average damage, I'll give you that, but there's a lot to be said for 0% fail, as the RNG does not produce smooth distributions, and we all have experienced cases of 5% fail failing a number of times in a row.

Vs. a monster with 10K-odd HP, average seems to me to be more important since a) there's no "overkill" problem, and b) there's no insta-death possibility the player needs to avoid by succeeding on the cast.

[Derakon]

Keleks:
Mana Storm: 400 @ 14% fail
Chaos Strike: 13d50 @ 0% fail
Rend Soul: 11d50 @ 0% fail

Hunh, thanks for the numbers. I could have sworn that when I last played a mage there was no spell that matched Mana Storm for max damage. Statement retracted.

(Chaos Strike's average damage is 331.5, and Rend Soul is 280.5, not that anything worth using it on wouldn't resist it)

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Hunh, thanks for the numbers. I could have sworn that when I last played a mage there was no spell that matched Mana Storm for max damage. Statement retracted.

(Chaos Strike's average damage is 331.5, and Rend Soul is 280.5, not that anything worth using it on wouldn't resist it)

Still, nothing matches the average damage for a jumped-up mage than the wand of annihilation at 415.625. Also, I disagree that its recharge fail percentage and possible destruction affects the average damage calculation. You should attempt recharge once you've phased away to momentary safety. If it blows up, no problem. Once the wands are all gone (they are "consumables" after all), then rely on Mana Storm and Chaos Strike as the next highest average damage. Of course, if you happen to be wielding a great weapon like Deathwreaker or have a powerful Lothlorien bow with Holy Might arrows, you should run the numbers for average damage with the weapons/missiles as they might be your best bet.

[mushroom patch]

In response to the OP re: writing an angband guide:

This guide,

http://rephial.org/help/guide

the first hit for "angband guide," is not bad. It's far from comprehensive and it's not the best piece of writing I've ever seen, but it captures the basics of winning angband according to current thinking. It would be better to have more specifics and less focus on things like phase door (which is much less valuable outside of the early game than the guide suggests).

As a bare introduction that leaves a lot of room for people to figure things out as they go, it's a decent guide, even if it offers no real advice about the endgame. A general guide that includes, for example, how to play mages would be a larger undertaking and result in a large, unfocused document. It might still be useful.

[Tibarius]

re: start-up guide

Too late *grins* ... i am already too deep in writing a guide. It will of course be what i like best - even tho i am trying hard to make it usefull not only for myself but for all Angband Players.

[AnonymousHero]

Too late *grins* ... i am already too deep in writing a guide. It will of course be what i like best - even tho i am trying hard to make it usefull not only for myself but for all Angband Players.

I think there's potentially great value in both a quick guide and a more in-depth guide. When I started playing ToME 2.x way back when, I quickly got frustrated with the (quite shallow) advice in the in-game manual and sought out Lord Dimwit's comprehensive guide -- and was immediately hooked!

EDIT: Of course that game wasn't quite as beginner-friendly as V is nowadays, but still...

[Nick]

(Chaos Strike's average damage is 331.5, and Rend Soul is 280.5, not that anything worth using it on wouldn't resist it)

Chaos Strike also has the problem that it polymorphs non-uniques - fine against Morgoth, though.