Sudden massive drop in Strength

[Grotug]

Thanks for the breakdown. Even so, speed influences everything, not just my melee weapon. The extra speed is great for the bow, too, which I am using a lot to avoid being touched to drain charges.

But, yeah, A +15 ring of damage temporary speed when needed probably wouldn't be a bad idea. I did consider it briefly. I admittedly don't use the temporary speed much right now and been wondering if I should just ditch the staff of speed, but it has been super good up to this point, as I'd pick another one up from time to time, replacing the backfired one from recharge and ones burnt to a crisp. When I had a stack of 3 with 0 charges, instead of trying to recharge all 3 individually I realized it would be better to recharge only one and then recombine the stack, and use the stack until its empty and then recharge just one again. This way there is less of a chance of losing one to backfire. I also discovered if you drop an empty identify staff into the store it would often show up with 18 charges.

EDIT: I jumped down to 3800' and now I am looking at 4 Great Ice Wyrms travelling together along with 5 Dracoliches and 1 Great Swamp Wyrm. I do not think I will take these on. Too many potions to lose and it will be hard not to be double breathed. I also don't have pConf when wielding Aulë. I see now it was a dragon pit; banished art though big Ds.

EDIT: If one of those D's I banished picked up an artifact, is that artifact now gone for the rest of the game?

[Pete Mack]

Monsters can't pick up artifacts. X fails to pick up the longsword is a very promising message. So is X fails to pick up the soft leather boots.

[Grotug]

Ooohhh, good to know! Thanks. I always just assumed they could.

I guess scrolls of teleportation are kinda useless at this stage of the game. Was saving them in my home, but now I'm not so sure how much value they have. I hate teleporting level, but that really is the much better escape. As someone else recently pointed out, at this depth, ?Tele very well will be out of the fire and into the frying pan.

In other news, I have 153 Mithril arrows in my quiver.

[luneya]

Monsters can't pick up artifacts. X fails to pick up the longsword is a very promising message. So is X fails to pick up the soft leather boots.

9 times out of 10 the longsword will turn out to be something useless like slay giant (or whatever slay matches the monster type that failed the pickup). The boots, on the other hand, probably are something good. Though the soft leather base type is a bit discouraging; assuming standarts, the best it could be is what, Wormtongue?

[Derakon]

9 times out of 10 the longsword will turn out to be something useless like slay giant (or whatever slay matches the monster type that failed the pickup). The boots, on the other hand, probably are something good. Though the soft leather base type is a bit discouraging; assuming standarts, the best it could be is what, Wormtongue?

Yeah, I think Pete meant Feanor, which is hard leather.

Seeing a monster fail to pick up a set of Power Dragon Scale Mail, on the other hand...

[Grotug]

Here is an updated dump of my character. I did find a ring of damage [+15] but the DEX <+5> ring and Cammithrim gloves mean I don't have to wear an item for sustain and the DEX ring does more damage against dragons than the ring of damage, oddly enough.

Go Gondor! Found a crown of Gondor that finally gives me pConf and so has enabled me to rearrange my equipment to much improvement. Speaking of Gondor, it'd be cool if you could find the Horn of Gondor. What would it do? When activated, it *frightens* enemies for 5-10 turns that would otherwise be immune to scaring. It would also have to confer some sort of resistance; not sure what would make most sense. Disenchantment? Chaos? Nether?

Look forward to your feedbacks on my current setup and home inventory hoarding.

I think I am going to drop the Shortbow of Lothlórien, though it holds life and has more DEX since it doesn't have +1 shooting speed. I seem to have a lot of rNexus options now so Arvedui also going to get dropped (Aulë prolly not gonna get replaced, but ya never know...). And the Númenor crown is just too inferior to the one I'm wearing so I figure a scenario where I might want to wear it again is remote. The rest stays in my home for now, though I wonder if holding onto the ?Teleport is good idea at this point? What do you all think?

[Estie]

I would consider using Celeborn and the Lorien bow; maybe not yet, but keep the bow. At some point you can forget about archery and maximize your melee damage by getting dex from the bow and using a damage ring.

Otherwise, just make your way down and see what else you get along the way.

[Grotug]

Thanks Estie. I need to throw away 3 items. Any, uh...suggestion on which ones to chuck?

What about the dwarven shield instead?

What about the teleport scrolls I haven't been using? I already ditched the teleport staffs since they are so common and I don't feel comfortable teleporting around levels any longer. Though with all my resistances may teleportation isn't so bad?

[Ingwe Ingweron]

When I had a stack of 3 [staves of speed] with 0 charges, instead of trying to recharge all 3 individually I realized it would be better to recharge only one and then recombine the stack, and use the stack until its empty and then recharge just one again. This way there is less of a chance of losing one to backfire. I also discovered if you drop an empty identify staff into the store it would often show up with 18 charges.

EDIT: If one of those D's I banished picked up an artifact, is that artifact now gone for the rest of the game?

If I recall correctly, recharging in a stack is better than dropping each item to recharge individually. There is LESS of a chance of explosion or failure in a stack than individually. Has this changed? Or did I not understand correctly?

If you have not identified the artifact (either by ID in regular version or by walk-over in the feature-branch) then the artifact can still be regenerated. The only exception to this is if you have the birth-option "lose artifacts when leaving level" toggled on (formerly "preserve artifacts" toggled off). With this birth option, you get a "Special" level feeling if an artifact is on the level, but you lose the artifact if you leave the level.

[Grotug]

Interesting. Thanks Ingwe.

In other news, if you don't have rDark, do not fight Ungoliant the Unlight.

[Estie]

Things to throw away:

Numenor, Wrath, Arvedui; all non-artifact armours; fur cloak of the magi (stunning). Maybe there is more, but this should do for starters.

[Grotug]

I picked up Hithlomir armor (rDark, rNether) after near death with Ungoliant. I figured her darkness blasts would reduce in damage when she was near dead but, nope, she had two red healthbars left and I was hacking away at her at under 400 health for a few rounds. I then quaffed a healing potion that brought me just over 500HP and right after I quaffed she did her thing with the darkness and brought me to 26 health. So, yeah, think I'm gonna rock the Hithlomir for a bit. Plus, if memories of past lives serve me, nether attacks get real harsh deeper in the dungeon (I'm at 3950'). Prolly shoulda been using Celeborn, but now that I have nether covered, think I will stick with Hithlomir.

My AC total is utter crap. Hithlomir's total AC is a puny 30.

Trident of Wrath is good against Undead. Btw, does the Undead brand affect "Nonliving Creatures"?

I'm down to 56 mithril arrows. They are serving me very well.

[Estie]

"Hacking away at under 400 health" is generally a very bad idea. The problem with high resists is that, unlike base + poison, they have a random element to them and, if youre unlucky, you can have the damage reduced by only 1/7 or so. On the plus side, the damage is less also; if you are not worried about the side effect (in the case of darkness: blindness), you can pretty much ignore them. Given that Ungoliant is about the biggest threat that throws around darkness attacks and she is dead, I wouldnt worry about the resistance anymore. Just stay close to full health all the time

Low AC isnt ideal, but the last thing to worry about. The reason to use Celeborn is to free the bow slot from disenchantment duties, not the AC.

If you want to carry Wrath as a switch for undead, by all means do so; personally I wouldnt, given that the main weapon already has good damage versus undead - theres nothing undead you cant handle with Aule. Constructs are not affected by the slay.

I missed that you have very good arrows; in the end, it might be best to actually use archery for the end fight. Youll see when you get there.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

I picked up Hithlomir armor (rDark, rNether) after near death with Ungoliant. I figured her darkness blasts would reduce in damage when she was near dead but, nope, she had two red healthbars left and I was hacking away at her at under 400 health for a few rounds. I then quaffed a healing potion that brought me just over 500HP and right after I quaffed she did her thing with the darkness and brought me to 26 health.

Don't be fooled. Breath damage declines with monster health, BUT, spells do not. Ungoliant may breathe poison or darkness, but also can CAST spells which invoke darkness storms for 475 points of damage. That's what your @ got hit with, not her darkness breath.

[Pete Mack]

The reason for Celeborn is Time Hounds.