What should I throw away?

[Nivra]

Stealth pretty much goes away from my list of desirable mods once I have ~700 hit points and decent speed, that is, I am out of 1-shot land. At this stage its all about clearing vaults and killing uniques, neither of which is helped much by high stealth. Thats not to say I am going to use aggravating items (which I will do for the 2 endfights), just not sacrifice other things like damage or resists for stealth.

This makes sense given what just happened.

I just descended to 2950' and Omens of Death immediately haunted me. Excited to confront death, I started wandering through the dungeon when detection revealed a large collection of treasure to the northwest. Excited, I pushed onwards, and who should come barreling down at me, but Saruman the White. I hasted up to +20, used ranged and melee and phase door and dealth with him. He dropped Thranduil which he must've snatched from the Elven King.

However, just before he died, I used up my last charge from my Staff of Speed. Oh no! How can I take on the rest at only +10 speed? Oh well, I still do tons of damage and have lots of hp. And I have my Superb stealth, so I can just walk through and pick off mobs as everyone else sleeps. As I approached the vault, I noticed it was a "Sphere" type vault. I was super excited to sneak my way through and validate my decision to be a stealthy half troll.

What happened? Waiting for me in the second antechamber to ambush me just as I entered the primary entrance? A huge pack of Time Hounds. Needless to say, before I could even react I felt weaker, less nimble, and less hardy. I immediately backed away, and started dancing with them trying my hardest to kill them with my one measly stack of 40 arrows. Finally, by the time I finished the very long battle to dispatch them, my damage per round was down to 350 and my hp to 700, and the whole damn vault was awake. So much for stealthy.

Now I've finally cleared everything except two chambers: One with Arien and one with the Witch-King of Angmar. I'd normally want to fight them, but I was only able to find potions of Strength and Constitution so I'm still feeling fairly clumsy. I only get 4.5 attacks with my weapon per round now for about 450 total damage. However, I did manage to find three Rings of Speed!!, so I'm freakishly fast in my clumsiness. Now I'm around +24 unhasted. Here's what else I've turned up.

I also found a lot of launchers.
So in addition to Bard, I have:
Lt. Crossbow of Haradrim (x4) +1 attack, (+16,+15)
Heavy Crossbow of Xtra Shots (x4) <+1> (+19,+12)
Sling of Buckland (x4) (+11,+9) <+5dex,+1shots,+2power>

All of the last three are x8 multipliers, but only the Buckland gives +5 dex, and I'm a HT warrior, so I think I'm going with that. I'm going to try and enchant it up as much as possible. Is it worth holding on to Bard,Haradrim, and Buckland and making a decision for Morgy based on what kind of ammo (Seeker/Holy Might) I find in the future? There hasn't been much good ammo in the vault.

Also in the vault: Star of Elendil and Nimloth who are both getting left behind with Thranduil, I think, as I doubt I'll have room to both carry them home or store them.

What say the rest of you? Shall I attempt to battle Arien or the Witch-King?

[Estie]

Jesus.

Dont fight dangerous uniques in vaults, period.

If you enter a vault, you do so because you want the items and getting into a dangerous fight might end up with you having to abandon the treasures. Only fight if its easy, no risk; anything remotely unpleasant, teleport away.
Take on the Witch King when he is alone, on a boring level where you can use teleportation with little risk if he summons.

Vault: get in, avoid protracted battles, pick up loot, get out asap.
Dangerous uniques: only engage in pristine conditions.

Of course, eventually you might get strong enough to finish off big uniques in a few rounds of combat, in which case they dont qualify as "dangerous" anymore. At such a time, you are probably ready to take on Morgoth.

[Nivra]

LOL. Really? Hahahah.... That's definitely a shift in strategy for me.

[UPDATE: Although I do admit I did do that with teh GCV I met around dlvl 30. But that was mostly because Saruman I couldn't melee down at that point, so had to resort to TO, and then Atlas trampled EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE VAULT, and I was crazy scared of him. They were the only uniques left after Atlas had trampled everything else.]

[fph]

For your reference, a quick list of the monsters I routinely avoid even in the late game:
* time, inertia and gravity hounds (until I can take them in a single turn)
* 11-headed hydras (no loot and burning risk)
* hellhounds. Those suckers burn scrolls and staves
* gelugons, Balrogs and pit fiends (summoners, breaths, burning/freezing
inventory risk)
* Nightwings and pit reavers
* Most lich variants and bone golems (drain charges)
* titans (summoners / big hitters + earthquakes)
* as a melee user, anything that disenchants, unless I have resistance.
* most 'G's (until I can take dreads in a single turn)

Wyrms: it depends. If I think I can take them safely, I do. It's better than having them breath on me as soon as I teleport.
Other inventory-destroying hounds: only if I have to, and typically round a corner.
If I descend the stairs, detect, and find a graveyard on the level (big pit filled with undead), I take the stairs again immediately in most cases.

[Timo Pietilä]

For your reference, a quick list of the monsters I routinely avoid even in the late game:
* time, inertia and gravity hounds (until I can take them in a single turn)

Inertia isn't that bad if you have stun protection (serenity) and are quite a lot faster than hounds are. They just slow you down, which isn't that bad if you are fast enough unless there is something other nearby that matches your speed and is dangerous. Damage from inertia hound breath is quite low.

[Nivra]

For your reference, a quick list of the monsters I routinely avoid even in the late game:
* 11-headed hydras (no loot and burning risk)
* hellhounds. Those suckers burn scrolls and staves
* Balrogs
* as a melee user, anything that disenchants, unless I have resistance.
* most 'G's (until I can take dreads in a single turn)

Wyrms: it depends. If I think I can take them safely, I do. It's better than having them breath on me as soon as I teleport.
Other inventory-destroying hounds: only if I have to, and typically round a corner.
If I descend the stairs, detect, and find a graveyard on the level (big pit filled with undead), I take the stairs again immediately in most cases.

I've been equipping Firestar for hydras, hellhounds, and balrogs (lesser only so far), then just beating them down despite the lower damage output.

Dreads I can take in a single turn.

Disenchant I swap in for the amulet, but I have to be more careful - I got Bard disenchanted by accident - now I threw it away, so no matter.

Wyrms, if I have the immunity, I attack.

So I've hit a couple more vaults and down around dlvl 80-85 now. The only big change in kit is 2 speed rings: +11 and +14. So now I'm at +31-34 unhasted. The Cloak of the Magi allowed me to swap in Serenity fulltime, so I now have rConf and ESP. Although without a warrior helm or cloak, I'm a couple points short of max dex/con. What should I be looking for next? Should I try and tweak the kit to max dex/con? A bigger weapon? Better resist coverage? Or am I ready for Sauron/Morgoth? How many uniques do I need to kill in the 70 -100 range? I don't have any uniques native to 65+ killed yet. The lowest native unique killed is Hoaramast.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=18086

[Mondkalb]

You have enough hitpoints and damage for everything.
Resist darkness might be an issue when fighting the unique spiders ...

I would just go deeper. You could find some more good artifacts (one of the elven rings or some artifact headwear could allow for some equipment shuffle).
Also, look out for some more scrolls of mass banishment and some potions of *healing* or life for fighting Morgoth. And don't take the staves with you to the final fight because Morgoth drains charges.

[Bogatyr]

Lose any of the slow/confuse rods/wands, they're useless after the very shallow levels.

[tumbleweed]

Should I try and tweak the kit to max dex/con?

Speaking of which, here's a question for the pros: Are fractional blows lost?

[Derakon]

Speaking of which, here's a question for the pros: Are fractional blows lost?

No. If you have 1.5 blows/round, then you get 1 blow per time you attack something, but that blow only takes 66% of a normal turn's worth of time, so you'll still be attacking 1.5 times per turn. Similarly for larger numbers of blows -- you get as many blows as you can without using more than one turn's worth of time, and any fractional blows just mean that you don't use a full turn's worth of time to attack.

[Nivra]

No. If you have 1.5 blows/round, then you get 1 blow per time you attack something, but that blow only takes 66% of a normal turn's worth of time, so you'll still be attacking 1.5 times per turn. Similarly for larger numbers of blows -- you get as many blows as you can without using more than one turn's worth of time, and any fractional blows just mean that you don't use a full turn's worth of time to attack.

This makes no sense to me. I always thought 1.5 attacks/round meant 1 attack this round, and 2 attacks the next round then and on and on.

Are you saying something like, 2 attacks per turn means each attack takes 0.5 turns, so if you have a 2 shots/turn bow, you could fire 1 shot and melee attack once?

Update: PS> I just picked up Mushrooms of Sprinting in the dungeon. Do these stack on top of Speed buffs like Terror?

[Nivra]

Update on character...

More space issues:

Are Pseudo or Law DSM worth hanging on to? What about Anarion for its sustains?

[Nivra]

Oh, also, for end-game ...

How much unique hunting should I do? I remember you used to try and hunt down almost all of them so that M doesn't summon any on you. Now I hear if you're ready just jump into the fight so you don't make a mistake and die before you get to M.

Is there a middle ground? I also hear leave weak uniques alive (which I've already killed 80% of uniques < lvl 65).

[Ingwe Ingweron]

How much unique hunting should I do? I remember you used to try and hunt down almost all of them so that M doesn't summon any on you. Now I hear if you're ready just jump into the fight so you don't make a mistake and die before you get to M.

Is there a middle ground? I also hear leave weak uniques alive (which I've already killed 80% of uniques < lvl 65).

I look for targets of opportunity throughout the game. If there is a unique that @ can kill, then do so. If @ can't then avoid the fight. The only reason I ever unique hunt nowadays is when @ is at DL 98 but doesn't have the h.p., experience, equipment, or consumables to take on the bosses. The moment @ does have those then try to go to guns on the Bosses immediately. (Albeit, sometimes you take on Sauron and then make the same calculations as to Morgoth.) Better to t.o. or destruct uniques in the final battles while killing the bosses than to mistakenly die hunting them down on your way to the win.

If you've got enough to win, then just go do it!

[Carnivean]

This makes no sense to me. I always thought 1.5 attacks/round meant 1 attack this round, and 2 attacks the next round then and on and on.

Are you saying something like, 2 attacks per turn means each attack takes 0.5 turns, so if you have a 2 shots/turn bow, you could fire 1 shot and melee attack once?

Imagine a round is a minute (too long, but easier conceptually). If you have 1 blow per round, it takes a minute. If you have 1.5, then each blow takes 40 seconds, so you'll get 1 blow in the first minute, but 2 in the second. If you have 2 blows, then they take 30 seconds each.

A normal speed monster gets to attack once a round/minute, so at 1.5 blows you get to double hit them every 2 rounds. It gets wonkier when you take speed bonuses into account.