Yet Another Endgame Advce Thread

[bio_hazard]

Ok- this guy is approaching the end game. Gnome mage, ~CL40, DL81. Looking at my ladder this is apparently terra incognito for me.

I've been more or less heading straight down, and I've avoided fighting anything tough because my damage output is just not very good. I've tried to use wands but have had bad luck with recharging and haven't been able to generate a stack of any of them. My speed seems OK- I could throw on another speed ring but my feeling is the con ring might be more important right now.

I'm going to go a little slower now because I really need those spell books, plus I need to start knocking off a few more uniques and gaining some levels.

The bow seems to do pretty well damage-wise so I'm thinking that plus wands (if I can find any more) might make for a good enough offensive supplement for Sauron, but I'm not sure that will be enough for Morgy. Thoughts on a gnome mage endgame?

Anything else I should be looking for in particular? Any consumables to watch out for? Presumably I'll get books to help with banishment/destruction/runes soon!

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=18236

[Derakon]

Wow, you've gotten awful luck with spellbooks. The really big ones you want are Tenser's Transformations, for Greater Recharging which is much less likely to blow up wands, and Kelek's Grimoire of Power, which has Banishment, Mass Banishment, and Mana Storm. And Word of Destruction, I think. Kelek's is huge. Unfortunately it's also pretty rare. Keep an eye out for those vaults!

Also, you want to get your CON up ASAP. More hitpoints = more better. I wouldn't value your current body armor especially highly; if you can find some dwarven body armor with a decent CON bonus it'd probably be worth using instead.

[bio_hazard]

I think I've seen 3/4 priest books, and just picked up my 4th copy of Raal's. I've been fairly liberal with teleport other in vaults but I haven't seen many recently or else they were the kind that are not easy to raid.

Just found immFire boots as a nice swap, and switched my shield for a dwarven shield so HP ~500 now.

[yyt16384]

You can drop those speed potions and wands of TO. You don't need them as a mage. You can also drop some of the spellbooks.

With your current HP and speed you can TO most monsters safely. You can clear most vaults by waiting at the entry and TO everything dangerous.

IIRC, 4.0.0 has the artifact generation bug, so you won't be getting a lot of artifacts.

[Bogatyr]

Ok- this guy is approaching the end game. Gnome mage, ~CL40, DL81. Looking at my ladder this is apparently terra incognito for me.

The monsters on DL98 are not all that much harder than on DL81, and the treasure is much better (speed rings, spell books). So I'd advise diving right to 98, and building up nice stacks of healing consumables and wands of annhilalation/drain life for the final fight while you're waiting for Kelek's and Tenser's. Experience will take care of itself in fighting uniques and other high value non-uniques to get at the treasures.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Wow, you've gotten awful luck with spellbooks. The really big ones you want are Tenser's Transformations, for Greater Recharging which is much less likely to blow up wands, and Kelek's Grimoire of Power, which has Banishment, Mass Banishment, and Mana Storm. And Word of Destruction, I think. Kelek's is huge. Unfortunately it's also pretty rare. Keep an eye out for those vaults!

When playing a mage, I never bother carrying Tenser's around. I don't like wasting a slot for a book with only 2 spells, and not all that useful spells either. By the time Greater Recharging is of any importance I've usually ditched anything requiring recharging so I don't heal monsters that drain charges. The one exception (two) are wands of drain life and annihilation. But those I just collect and use for the end fight unless there's a target of opportunity before dropping them off at home. Charge them up with Tensers at home before the final fight and leave the book behind. Even then, I often don't end up using those wands if @ can deal damage more effectively with missiles or even melee. (Like my last mage that had Holy Might bolts, Deathwreaker and The One Ring! A battle mage that couldn't be bothered with the lowly damage of the wands.)

[kandrc]

You're carrying around so many spellbooks that you're burdened. I never carry more than two of each, even in ironman games. Don't melee burners and don't get breathed on. Better yet, swap to your fire immunity boots, squelch every book that you're already carrying, and drop all but 1 copy of each. Getting unburdened is worth +3 speed, so you're only taking a -3 net speed. In exchange, you can face hell wyrms and balrogs with impunity.

[Carnivean]

squelch every book that you're already carrying, and drop all but 1 copy of each.

Inscribing books with !d!k prevents them being squelched, so you can squelch all other copies, and ensures that you are prompted before dropping them accidentally. Really makes it easy to prevent overloading on books at the deep end of the dungeon.

[bio_hazard]

Finally found Mordekain's Escapes-what a quality of life improvement that is. Also a Holy Avenger BoC, and a randart armor with fire immunity and a bunch of other good resists (unfortunately no stats, but an upgrade to the dragon scale mail I was wearing). I found some elvish boots with +9 speed and +4 stealth. My base speed is now >20 so feeling pretty good in that department, but could use more con and I wouldn't mind regeneration on something.

e: I've been getting decent numbers of randarts so far- but definitely most are not worth carrying. I'll move up to 4.0.3 after this char.

[yyt16384]

Better yet, swap to your fire immunity boots, squelch every book that you're already carrying, and drop all but 1 copy of each.

I would carry two of them unless I happen to have acid immunity too.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

I would carry two of them unless I happen to have acid immunity too.

Books are not subject to acid.

Books/Staves-->Fire; Potions-->Cold; Equipment-->Acid; Rings/Rods/Wands-->Lightning (except Rod of Recall, which is immune).

[Timo Pietilä]

I would carry two of them unless I happen to have acid immunity too.

Acid doesn't matter, books are not vulnerable to acid, only fire.

[Carnivean]

I carry 2 because by the time that I'm immune to thievery, I'm strong enough not to care about weight.

[yyt16384]

Acid doesn't matter, books are not vulnerable to acid, only fire.

Then I must have made some mistakes when reading object definitions.

[Timo Pietilä]

Books are not subject to acid.

Books/Staves-->Fire; Potions-->Cold; Equipment-->Acid; Rings/Rods/Wands-->Lightning (except Rod of Recall, which is immune).

missing: Scrolls -> acid and fire and staves -> acid. Also high level Rods like detection, ID, restoration, healing, speed are immune to elec, and rings with resist to elec are immune to elec.

Fire also burns leather armors, polearms and bows in inventory, but doesn't hurt them in equipment.