Mudd - new member

[Mudd]

Testing testing!

Thought I posted last nite, but I think it was lost in the ether.
If it is simply waiting for approval I apologize for the double post!

[Mudd]

I've been reading this forum for the last month and I want to thank everyone here....this place is a great resource!

A little background:

I first played Nethack and Moria back in the early to mid 80's.
Never beat them and probably didn't get much past midgame.

Have been wanting to get back into RL's I heard that Angband was a decendant of Moria so I d/l'd it about a month ago.

On my 8th character or so now and have made it to clvl 37. Most earlier attempts died around clvl 29-30 so with some help from the RNG I am doing fairly well.

Posted a dump over on the ladder:

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=19675

Been using the name Mudd from my early gaming days - sorry I see some others using the name Mudd on the ladder.

Anyway- any advise especially concerning inventory and item management is welcome. Having a hard time deciding what to keep and throw lately. Been using a robe of Permanence and not sure if I should be. Hard to resist the sustains tho.

Had a couple of encounters I decided to run away from with way OOD uniques lately - Balrog of Moria...a couple of Ringwraithes...and some crazy Dragon I don't recall. All of these happened at 1700-2000 feet.
Not sure how folks manage to dive fast. Must be a lot of running down there<grin>.

Spent a lot of time trying to uncurse helm of Gorlim after putting it on blind. That was how I learned there were still Cursed items in the game.
Then I found Calris which I have uncursed and stored at home. Buffed it up to usuable, but my current weapon is where I get FA so I haven't tried to use it yet. Don't like aggravation much after Gorlim either- lol.

Anyway, thanks again for this forum and I welcome all feedback on strategy going forward with this High Elf Rogue.

[Pete Mack]

Your character is very strong. My one suggestion is Himring for rPois before you go deeper. A robe is perfect for a swap item. Starting near your depth, drolems can do 700+ unresisted poison damage. As you go deeper, there will be more such monsters.
And you need to go deeper. At 2000', you can't get more than around 2500exp for an in-depth monster. For a high-elf especially, you need a lot more than that.

[Pete Mack]

Also: Welcome, welcome.

[Mudd]

Thank's Pete!

When I first got Himring I didn't have rbase covered elsewhere so I stored it thinking it might be useful later. I take it the sustains are not as important as rpoison, but man I hate losing levels... 8^)

Would you stick with the KOW for now as a a main weapon? To switch to Calris I could either switch my boots of speed to the boots of free action or switch the gauntlets of agility to alchemists gloves of free action.
As I don't want to lose speed and the extra dex from the gauntlets of agility is wasted now, I am considering changing gauntlets. Those gloves of Power helped out bigtime early, but I don't think they make sense with current items.

Thanks again for the welcome!

[Estie]

Welcome!

With that character, I would use gauntlets of free action + Careth Asdriag. No aggravation, especially not on a rogue, and gloves give a substantial mana penalty unless they have FA, a dex bonus or are made of gossamer.

As Pete mentioned, Himring for poison resistance. Gorlim is an item to keep for the last fight, where aggravation and curses dont matter anymore, though chances are that you will prefer Dor Lomin still when you get there.

As you go deeper, you will have to make a habit of not engaging everything in combat; the hard part is learning which monsters to fight and which to avoid. There is a plethora of nasty, unpleasant and deadly things down there which probably get you dead soon, but avoiding them by staying on the upper levels is no solution. So good luck

[Pete Mack]

No. Boots of speed are not worth giving up, and aggravation is bad news. Again, it might br worth carrying as a swap once you get a little deeper. (By level 65, dragons have a lot more HP.)

You will need MB3 soon, since invisible, no-ESP monsters start getting much worse.

And like I said, the robe only weighs 2lbs. Carry it if you think you need it. But only as a backup. The resistances on Himring are much more important

Edit: Didn't see the gloves of FA in storage. Estie is right: Use them instead of agility. You have more than enough DEX. And Careth Asdraig is your best walkihg-around weapon, with Calris saved for big fights. You can use archery too. That's an endgame bow.

[Mudd]

Okay!

Looks like a change of tactics on my next trip into town.
HimRing, Gauntlets of Free Action and Careth Asdriag it is!


What is MB3 you mentioned I will need soon?

Thanks again. As Este said, the hard part is learning what not to fight at this point. I ran from the Balrog, one of the Ringwraiths, and the Mouth of Sauron so far, but took out Kavlax, Sacha, and a few others that weren't pushovers.

I'm in new territory going beyond 2000' so the learning process will likely kill me soon<grin>.

[Nomad]

What is MB3 you mentioned I will need soon?

Mage book three - i.e. the third of the red spellbooks, "Incantations and Illusions". It has some pretty useful spells like Identify, Stone to Mud and Reveal Monsters.

[Pete Mack]

Okay!

Looks like a change of tactics on my next trip into town.
HimRing, Gauntlets of Free Action and Careth Asdriag it is!


What is MB3 you mentioned I will need soon?

Thanks again. As Este said, the hard part is learning what not to fight at this point. I ran from the Balrog, one of the Ringwraiths, and the Mouth of Sauron so far, but took out Kavlax, Sacha, and a few others that weren't pushovers.

I'm in new territory going beyond 2000' so the learning process will likely kill me soon<grin>.

The low-level Ringwraiths are pretty easy to kill-in fact all of them are relatively easy. Undead have fairly low HP (with a few exceptions), and they have no breath attack (with one exception.)
Use archery if you don't have hold life. (And killing undead is one place where a swap makes sense.)

At your level, the most dangerous uniques are Gorlim and Kavlax

[Mudd]

Mage book three - i.e. the third of the red spellbooks, "Incantations and Illusions". It has some pretty useful spells like Identify, Stone to Mud and Reveal Monsters.

Ah...I've been using a rod of detection and the MB1 detect monsters up till now.

What's the diff between detect monsters and reveal monsters?

I've also been relying on a rod of identify.

Been carrying around a ton of rods as a matter of fact, but now considering dropping some. Curing, Healing, and Recall, ID, Detect, etc have been used constantly along with firebolt, frostbolt, and acid balls.

[Mudd]

The low-level Ringwraiths are pretty easy to kill-in fact all of them are relatively easy. Undead have fairly low HP (with a few exceptions), and they have no breath attack (with one exception.)
Use archery if you don't have hold life. (And killing undead is one place where a swap makes sense.)

At your level, the most dangerous uniques are Gorlim and Kavlax

Good to know.
And I've already killed Gorlim and Kavlax!
I seem to frequently run into things way OOD though. The one that freaked me out the most was the Mouth.

[Estie]

Ah...I've been using a rod of detection and the MB1 detect monsters up till now.

What's the diff between detect monsters and reveal monsters?

I've also been relying on a rod of identify.

Been carrying around a ton of rods as a matter of fact, but now considering dropping some. Curing, Healing, and Recall, ID, Detect, etc have been used constantly along with firebolt, frostbolt, and acid balls.

Reveal monsters detects invisible ones as well. A rod of detection covers everything except objects; those are revealed as stars, only the rogue spell gives exact information.

As a rule of thumb, access to spells is better than using rods (i.e., takes up less inventory space). It is a good idea to avoid doubling up on detection - if you can cast the spell reliably, you can make better use of an inventory slot than carrying rods with the same effect.
Rod of ID for example are superfluous if you carry book 3 which has the spell of identify plus other spells.

Damaging rods (and wands) have their fans; personally, I dont use them much; in any case, with 300 melee damage/round and Belthronding, its time to say goodbye to at least the low level ones like firebolt.

Curing rods I use, but dump once I have poison resistance. With the poison dot being the most common and longlasting status effect, I can justify using a !ccw to get rid of any other status-effect should the need arise. Healing rods are great to preserve potions; however, I often store them in town till I have a couple.

The thing to do with all that freed up inventory space is to carry escapes. Scrolls of phase door, destruction, teleport level, staves of teleportation all help to get out of any bad situation you might land in.
Of course, other things like the various grades of healing potions, banishment devices and equipment swaps are also always worth carrying.

[Pete Mack]

You'll meet out-of-depth monsters in vaults and special rooms. You have enough HP to survive any single attack by any monster except the very deepest uniques. With Himring, the most damage you could reasonably expect is 500 from a shards or sound breather, or 533 from a single resist elemental (Fire/Cold/Elec) attack from an out of depth big breather; but those are rare: even an elemental wyrm can't do that much.

[Mudd]

You'll meet out-of-depth monsters in vaults and special rooms. You have enough HP to survive any single attack by any monster except the very deepest uniques. With Himring, the most damage you could reasonably expect is 500 from a shards or sound breather, or 533 from a single resist elemental (Fire/Cold/Elec) attack from an out of depth big breather; but those are rare: even an elemental wyrm can't do that much.

Yup....I just finished off Ankhoril the Blind<sp?> in the biggest vault I've seen.
He was walled off so I could finish off most everything and save him for last.

Found a Lochaber axe of *Slay Undead* in the room that does 498 damage to undead. Not sure if I'll ever use it. Funny I would have loved it a few levels back. Should I take it back and keep it in town for later?

I think the Mouth freaked me out because he walked right thru the walls and started chasing me.