Unexpected drop!

[Bogatyr]

Well my weapon issue is now solved after mowing through an Ainu pit on dlev 99: Scythe of Slicing (Holy Avenger) with big +toDam (actually came from ?Acquirement, dropped by an Ainu), *and* a beefy Cestus of Power.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=19624

The only holes are shards, light, and electricity. Only +1 str needed to get to 18/200 for all of str, dex, and con. May switch to Hammerhand for that but that will again leave a hole on pConf. But maybe that's OK as Derakon noted. Switching to Hammerhand may allow me to wield Anarion and keep 18/200 con and give me full sustains. Anarion will also plug the lightning hole. I could always swap to Caspanion for pConf but I like the way I look in Artifact Adamantite Platemail

Time to head home for my seeker arrows of Acid which I've saved up for Sauron .

[Pete Mack]

You don't need any of those resists to fight Morgoth. You have temp elec resist for any summons. Light and shards are not common, and light only does 400 damage. (For Sauron, you need them even less if you use an ASC.
Gloves of Power are nice, bot gloves of combat and crown of might really give flexibility; the latter are better than almost all artifact head gear in the end game. I end up with one in roughly 50% of wins.

Edit: Fighting Sauron is the one time that nexus resist really can be crucial. He has teleport level he's about 50% he's likely to cast when he's low on HP. You have a 12% chance of failing your save which is pretty high.

[Bogatyr]

I chose the power over the combat because it doesn't aggravate, and gave substantially higher damage output from the STR (and the +todam was higher).

Interesting, probably from my affinity for mages, I dismiss crowns of might, but if I come across one I'll check it out.

I forgot to mention that I also got Dal-i-thialon from the Ainu, which while I lost bit of speed (exactly +20 permanent, so still workable for Morgoth), gave me pConf in the boot slot which is pretty good.

Still juggling to try to cover holes and keep melee damage at max, but I think I've got a final fight loadout minus banish consumables now.

[Bogatyr]

....aaand a winner! As usual, over prepared for the final fight. Used:

~8-10 !Healing
~3-4 !*Healing*
1 !Life
1 ,Vigor (only Dex was not sustained, ate this when it dropped below 18/200)
3 ?Mass Banishment (my full supply, I fought on several turns before using it each time)
No use of destruction
Never teleported Morgoth away
1 [Celeborn activate to banish a cloud of "L"s
3 ?Rune of Protection (got me about 8-10 "free" melee rounds on Morgoth, well worth it)

Fought in corridor area because "P" was so close when I arrived on the level, no time to prepare anything else.

Kobold Rogue is a great combo. You find your objects quickly with no wasted searching out red "*"'s.

Finally came across a hefty MoD (*Slay Evil*, +20 to-dam), biggest damage dealer to evil/undead I came across in the whole game.

And just because I love doing it, I fired about 10 mithril shots of Holy Might from a Sling of Buckland, for a nice hefty amount of damage. Several "good" hits was very satisfying.

winning dump: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=19624

I wore Nenya the entire game after finding it. Blessing on one hand, on the other, sort of gave me speed vs. damage pressure in the endgame, ring slots are precious!

[ranger jeff]

He said precious, lol

[MattB]

He said precious, lol

[*grin*]
.

[Bogatyr]

Tricksy Kobold Roguezzes! False!

[Bogatyr]

Unexpected drop #2: Dwarf Priest trundling along OODing everything in sight, oh a scroll of acquirement, probably will get a trident of slay orc or something useless.... THE GOLDEN CROWN OF GONDOR! W00t, now we're cooking with gas!

[Bogatyr]

Unexpected drop #2: Dwarf Priest trundling along OODing everything in sight, oh a scroll of acquirement, probably will get a trident of slay orc or something useless.... THE GOLDEN CROWN OF GONDOR! W00t, now we're cooking with gas!

Unlike the prior kobold rogue, this dwarf priest wearing the Golden Crown of Gondor, and wielding the hammer of Aule with Ringil at home, found out the hard way that Osse breathes nether for > 512 HP of damage .

[Estie]

Ouch. He was formerly known as the angel of death, which is more of a giveaway.

[Bogatyr]

Yeah Osse's a badass. Forgot about that somehow. I knew he was tough, but not that tough. Should have skipped him until I had maxed CON. That character was a total winner. I made it through the tough "can't do any significant damage" priest middle period, too, he was really taking off. Worst part was I had Evenstar as a swap but I wore Carlammas for the HP. I had swaps that gave me 612 HP but I wanted 4 swings with Aule .

Worst part is now I'll have to start the frickin' priest all over again. Now I have a score to settle. Priest I find sort of boring with his small # of useful attacks, but the higher level restoration and healing magic is awesome. I love having unlimited mapping. I also found early ESP solving my typical "can't detect enough" issue with priests. Bah.

Repeat after me: "Any monster can kill you. Any monster can kill you."

[Carnivean]

Osse's not so tough, but he is a dangerous opponent due to his damage output.

[Sky]

unexpected drop of historical significance; The Trident Of Wrath, dropped by Orfax, Son Of Boldor at 1600 feet (level 32).

My third arti drop after Carieth Asdrag and the Hard Leather Armor of Himring. I suppose you could add Firestar which i lost as i had an Elder Vampire on my back and had to leave the level. (playing with Preserve on)

[Bogatyr]

My priests just don't like progressing past clev 40. Inevitably they die because I think I'm pretty tough, but forget that there are baddies that can hit for > 500 (e.g., mana storm). Swapped out my ESP helmet for Serenity Crown, on a 9-9 level after TOing away scores of deep uniques from the massive vault. While wandering the hallways, encountered both unique balrog and Vecna in LoS unhasted unexpectedly, TO'd the balrog but Vecna mana stormed and one-shot'ted me next turn. I had a stack of *Destruction* scrolls that I thought of using, but no, I was looking for the monster that picked up that bow of Lothlorien that gave TK so I could keep the Serenity crown.

There is always another vault. There is always another vault.

That vault gave me both a BoC(HA) and MoD (HA), the Arkenstone (not to useful for priest), and a slew of other great things. Should have taken the goodies and recalled.

[Estie]

Now I am curious, why did you want to wear/keep a serenity crown as priest ?