What does an Ironman Priest need for endgame?

**Pete Mack** · January 28, 2016, 21:09

What you need for the endgame is...

More DEX, CON, and full Detection/ESP. You have literally everything else covered. (Obviously 18/200 WIS would be nice, but you will get that RSN. And at dl 70, you are guaranteed to find a better Ring of speed.)

You need 4 blows with that killer 4d5 sword. The dagger is not remotely good enough. Starting with 10 dex cripples midgame play, since it takes forever to get to 3 blows.

I'd still use the sword, and put on any +dex gear I could. And that much more CON is easily worth +3 speed when you are already above base speed +10. RNether from the other armor is a nice lagniappe. You can get rid of the RCHAOS armor and RNether/RDark shields.

Since it's already obsolete, ditch the stealth stuff and the dagger. It is already obsolete. Superb stealth and +4 speed is always worth the exchange, and the dagger is just not that much better than the sword for RPOIS monsters to be worth keeping vs. +4 CON.

**Nivra** · January 28, 2016, 21:35

Missing a weapon

Hmm... it appears that slow (w) in my inventory didn't make it into the file dump. That's weird.

This is the Scythe of Slicing:

Code:

a) a Scythe of Slicing (Holy Avenger) (9d4) (+12,+15) [+2] <+3> {DAMAGE}
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 2250 feet (level 45)
     
     +3 wisdom.
     Slays evil creatures, undead, demons.
     Provides protection from fear.
     Sustains strength.
     Blessed by the gods.  Grants the ability to see invisible things. 
     
     
     Combat info:
     1.0 blows/round.
     With +1 STR and +0 DEX you would get 1.1 blows
     With +0 STR and +1 DEX you would get 1.1 blows
     Average damage/round: 80.6 vs. evil creatures, 106.8 vs. undead,
     106.8 vs. demons, and 54.3 vs. others.

**Derakon** · January 28, 2016, 21:46

That scythe will easily be endgame-quality once you get max blows with it.

Priests honestly have tons of options for the final fight though. Melee is doable thanks to unlimited big heals. Ranged is an option if you find a good launcher and ammo. So is just casting Orb of Draining 150 times or so. Consumables-wise, you'll want plenty of Restore Mana potions, at least some Healing or *Healing* just in case, and as many Scrolls of Destruction and Mass Banishment as you can get. It's really a question of what you find.

**Thraalbee** · January 28, 2016, 21:47

Agree. Gunest is great. Telepathy is worth a lot. Just survive and end game will be doable. You'll need !Mana restore and a few !life and *heal* are nice too. I would melee vs Morgoth and if you want that you'll likely find an even better weapon close to the end. But Gunest is ok. I really want 0% fail on Tele other and big heal too

**Nivra** · January 28, 2016, 22:30

OK. Going with Gunest and "Wis+4, giving me 416 HP, ESP, and 0% fail.
I have +10 speed in my full kit, carrying all my swap gear (+11 -1overweight).

I am missing Regen, SI, and rPoison (trickery swap).
I'll keep Sense Invis up, and detect often.

What monsters do I have to worry about that can one shot me on poison?

Drolem(not on ESP)
Dragons/Wyrms (Multi/Green)

What else?

Which Hydra breathe poison and have enough HP to do 400HP?

I dropped all attack wands/staves in favor of one stack of arrows (with x4x2 bow).
Holding onto !Healing, !Mana, !Speed, _Speed
Also holding onto ?TeleportSelf in case I need a poison swap and lose my 0%, but this could be dropped.

**Nivra** · January 29, 2016, 04:07

Ironman Inventory Management

How long do you hold onto items to use for future kit choices?

I just got the following artifact light w/immune Lightning

Code:

f) the Arkenstone of Brion <+3>
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 2400 feet (level 48)
     
     +3 dexterity.
     Provides immunity to lightning.
     Cannot be harmed by fire.
     Radius 3 light.
     
     When activated, it maps the entire level and detects nearby
     objects, traps, doors, and stairs.
     Takes 102 to 200 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 90.2%

This makes my previous immLightning swap gloves, 'ilossir' obsolete. However, if I find an rand-art based off Palantir that provides even better bonuses, maybe I'll need the immLightning gloves again. Since it's an immunity, I would typically stash it at home. But, obviously in ironman, I don't have that choice, so I'm thinking of ditching it.

**Derakon** · January 29, 2016, 04:35

The Palantir no longer exists in modern Vanilla, so you don't need to worry about it superceding the Arkenstone.

**bron** · January 29, 2016, 05:44

Originally posted by Nivra

* How important is that 0% fail?

Being able to do a zero-fail *Heal* is IMHO an important capability. Priest aren't usually able to dish out lots of damage quickly, so they need to be able to hang in there. Note that to really ensure zero-fail, you also need protection against blindness, confusion, and stunning.

Wands of Annihilation are a good choice against Morgoth, if you have the inventory space for them. But inventory pressure always makes me drop them. Drain Life is a bit better than Orb of Draining against evil creatures, but not so much as to make them worth carrying in an Iron Man game. They can be reasonable against not-evil living creatures e.g. the Tarrasque, but again, not so much that I personally carry them in an Iron Man. I find that the Annihilation prayer is too expensive for the damage it does. A good shooter with good ammo is a better all-round choice.

You'll want all the Banish and Mass Banish you can carry since the fight with Morgoth is likely to be a long one. A dozen each is probably a safe number, although you might get by with less by judicious use of "Banish Evil". And of course Restore Mana and/or Magi staves.

**Pete Mack** · January 29, 2016, 06:13

With a quiver, it also helps to accumulate slay evil ammo, and even acid brand. If you dedicate 2 or 3 equipment slots to ammo (80-120 shots), you will have enough to really lighten the requirements for other stuff.

**Nivra** · January 29, 2016, 19:12

Stunning

So Resist Sound prevents stunning from sound effects, but what about stunning from other effects?

Are there any besides melee? And do I need to get resist Stun to protect against melee stunning, such as from mystics?

**AnonymousHero** · January 29, 2016, 19:31

(This is from not-so-recent memory. Caveat lector.)

Originally posted by Nivra

So Resist Sound prevents stunning from sound effects, but what about stunning from other effects?

Nope, you need pStun for that.

Originally posted by Nivra

Are there any besides melee? And do I need to get resist Stun to protect against melee stunning, such as from mystics?

I think Plasma breath (from Z's) also induces stun. Not sure if there are other sources.

To be completely safe you need pStun (p for protection) which is very rare on the standard artifacts, but you can get it from the "of Serenity" ego on hats. (It's also rare on randarts, but usually not quite as rare as for the standarts.)

EDIT: With randarts you might also get unlucky and not have it on any randart at all.

**Thraalbee** · January 29, 2016, 21:24

You don't *need* pStun although it is nice to have. Bring some !*healing* and !Life and you have a zero fail recovery (spell fail rate is higher when stunned iirc). But to engage with stuff like master mystics and grand master mystics or packs of plasma hounds you are much better off with it than without

**Derakon** · January 29, 2016, 21:27

As long as you stay out of LOS of large groups of Plasma Hounds, I don't think it's possible for a character to go from unstunned to knocked out in a single turn. I guess maybe if you decided to reduce your speed to -10 while next to a Grand Master Mystic or something like that.

**Pete Mack** · January 30, 2016, 04:00

A GMM can (sometimes) knock out a normal speed character in 1 move It has 3x speed and can do 35 (max stun) in a single turn.

name:493:Grand master mystic
info:130:1936:30:96:5
blow:KICK:HURT:20d2
blow:KICK:HURT:10d2
blow:HIT:PARALYZE:20d1
blow:HIT:PARALYZE:15d1

What does an Ironman Priest need for endgame?

What does an Ironman Priest need for endgame?

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