Am I ready?

[Wanderlust]

Hey Fellas,

It's been a while ... but I've been working on my game. I died at least 200 times between DL 30 and DL40. But finally, here I am, cracking open vaults on level 98 just like eating popcorn: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=19083

At this point, DL98 feels easy. But I have no clue what lies below on the final 2 levels.

This is the moment to ask for advice. What do y'all think? Am I ready? What do I need to know?

[calris]

You SERIOUSLY need Nether res

[calris]

And blind, and confusion, and stun. If you can drop shards and get the other resistances, do so

[debo]

Uh, the character has a billion hitpoints, 32 speed, and a large stock of healing stuff. I think all it needs is to go win.

I can't remember anymore, does Vanilla have teleportation options that you can use while blinded / confused (e.g. staves?) If you have one of those it seems like you're good.

[Estie]

Yes you are ready. There are two holes that you need to be aware of:

Confusion: Teleport staves should normally be carried when resistance to confusion and blindness is missing; however, in the final fight staves are detrimental, so if you get confused, quaff an appropriate heal and hope the next round wont kill you. And of course, stay away from things that confuse with melee attack, some P and the Catlord.

Blindness: the only things that blind continously do this via darkness breath, but you have darkness resistance so you are safe from those. In case of the odd blindness spell, use a potion.

Nether resistance is not relevant.

[calris]

Nether resistance is not relevant.

I stand corrected

But watch out for stun - That was the ONLY res I was missing. I got sloppy with a Grand Master Mystic, got knocked out, and died. Nothing should be able to do that in one hit, so as long as you are aware of it, you should be OK

[Nomad]

I can't remember anymore, does Vanilla have teleportation options that you can use while blinded / confused (e.g. staves?) If you have one of those it seems like you're good.

It does, but charge-drainers (including both Sauron and Morgoth and many other high-level uniques) can use them to heal, so I'd avoid carrying staves and wands in the late game.

I think with that damage, HP, speed and stash of healing potions you should be good to go and melee Morgoth. It would be nice to have pConf if you can get it (pBlind is less important since you're a warrior, and I'd class nether resistance as a nice-to-have rather than must-have) but you can probably do without it, you'll just end up going through more healing potions. Keep your big stack of Cure Critical Wounds so you can drink those to cure status effects when your HP is still high and avoid wasting the better potions.

The good thing about battling Morgoth as a warrior is that he causes earthquakes in melee, so you really just need to focus on hitting him and keeping healed while he'll continually destruct the level around you and mostly keep any other monsters out of your way by himself. My usual tactic is to Phase Door if @ gets down to half HP or surrounded by high-level nasties (after all the earthquakes you're pretty likely to end in a safe position), chug a potion, and wait for Morgoth to dig his way back to me; if you're blind/confused you can't phase, so you'll have heal while you're still in the thick of things and end up taking more hits and going through more potions.

I'd advise you take on Sauron on dlevel 99 now, see how many potions you end up going through in that battle, and then decide based on that if you think you're going to need to collect more before you fight Morgoth. (But personally I always find I way overestimate how many I'll need, so I think you've probably got enough already.)

[Thraalbee]

Definitely winnable. But never safe, one mistake might not kill you every time but two in a row most likely will. Worst case is getting hit twice with mana storm. That's too much to survive so whenever below 600, heal big before any other action.
Destruction is good vs summons but teleport Morgoth away first or you will have to wait a looong time for him to reappear. Teleport away on him is ok, he'll be back quickly

[Philip]

I haven't played V in a while, but as I remember, rNeth is useful for saving potions and time on healing, but only for that. You don't have that many potions of healing, but I guess with a lot of hitpoints you can afford to wait to use *heal*. Or just spend a couple extra turns chugging CCW. You don't need your CLWs, CCWs should be readily available by now, and they're just plain better. Also, nice bolts you got there.

[Carnivean]

I stand corrected

But watch out for stun - That was the ONLY res I was missing. I got sloppy with a Grand Master Mystic, got knocked out, and died. Nothing should be able to do that in one hit, so as long as you are aware of it, you should be OK

You're talking about surviving for long periods in the end game, but everyone is talking about taking down the 2 bosses. Once you're on 99 and 100 nothing else matters, as you don't want to be fighting anything else at the same time.

[Derakon]

Big threats from Sauron and Morgoth are summoning, mana storms, darkness storms, brain smash, charge draining, and stat draining. The latter two are melee-only. If you can cope with those for long enough to wear away their HP, then you can win. Note that brain smash piles a bunch of nasty debuffs on you if you fail the save, including temporary -10 speed. Recommend you don't fail the save.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

+ 1 to Estie's comments. Go for it!

[Pete Mack]

I'd rather have rConf going into the last fight than some of those features you have. But anyone with Deathwreaker is ready to go.

[Derakon]

I'd rather have rConf going into the last fight than some of those features you have. But anyone with Deathwreaker is ready to go.

Maybe we should do a competition where you start as a level-1 warrior with Deathwreaker and whoever wins at the lowest character level wins.

[Estie]

Maybe we should do a competition where you start as a level-1 warrior with Deathwreaker and whoever wins at the lowest character level wins.

Deathwreaker would stay in the house untill the end fights