How to approach endgame with high XP char?

[Estie]

My first win was in a version where I had to deal the killing blow in the middle of an empty room because dropped items didnt stack on the floor. My memories are vague, but I think it must have been a HT warrior, and I do remember Balli Stonehand. I hated the weapon, but needed the con bonus (or thought I did).
The breakthrough from countless deaths to making it to the endgame came with discovering the utility of teleport other.

[Will]

Well the last 2 fights sure were anti-climatic. I've updated the ladder: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=19874

Getting to lvl 50 was actually a lot faster than I had thought. I found plenty of xp potions, as well as a few red dragons pits with Wyrms of Hell. Clearing them with Firestarter was without risk and a great source of xp and items.

I found 2 rings of power deep in the dungeon (one on dlvl 83 and the other on dlvl 98). They are definitely very powerful.

In the end I couldn't find a nice bow so I took the best I had and had exactly 20 speed, leaving Cubragol at home. I killed everything including Sauron with the Trident of Wrath (2nd winner in a row to use this weapon) but switched to a nice great weapon of *Slay Evil* for the ultimate fight.

I abused rune of protection which seemed really OP to me. I had to cast it maybe 4-5 times. I TO'ed Morgoth away 3-4 times before casting *Destruction*.

Thanks to RoP I used only a few consumables, maybe 3 !healing and 2 !*healing*.

The last fight with my HT warrior without using RoP (not even from scrolls) felt a lot more epic. This time I felt almost like a bot, with the following list of priorities:
- keep hp above 500
- renew RoP
- TO Morgoth away/cast *Destruction* to get rid of uniques
- TO uniques away
- Mass Banishment or Banishment depending on situation
- hit Morgoth
- *yawn*

As a ranger I used my bow a lot before getting RoP. Afterwards, it seemed a lot easier and faster to just smack stuff with my melee weapon (admittedly I found one of the greatest melee weapons in the game, but couldn't find a decent bow).

In the end Morgoth had the last laugh: he dropped a Long Bow of Lothlorien (x5) just to mock me

[Pete Mack]

You got lucky 500HP is not enough to protect against mana storm. It can do as much as 600 damage, tho that's essentially 0% likely. But 580 is quite likely, and 555 is expected value.
You can see damage amounts in monster_spell.txt. For BA_MANA, it is 5*mlev + 10d10

[Will]

You got lucky 500HP is not enough to protect against mana storm. It can do as much as 600 damage, tho that's essentially 0% likely. But 580 is quite likely, and 555 is expected value.
You can see damage amounts in monster_spell.txt. For BA_MANA, it is 5*mlev + 10d10

Ok, thanks for the info, I didn't know where to find that. It probably explains why for some other breaths I sometimes lost 100, sometimes 300, and was really puzzled.

Re: that last fight I'll write 600 next time But really my health barely went down anyway.

I feel like trying a mage or priest next, mostly because I have no clue how rogues deal damage...

[Derakon]

I feel like trying a mage or priest next, mostly because I have no clue how rogues deal damage...

The same way warriors do -- melee or ranged combat. Rogues are basically as good at melee as paladins are, except that they don't get healing spells; they're also the third-best archers in the game, behind rangers and warriors.

That said, a rogue would probably end up feeling pretty similar to the ranger you just did, just more durable, better at melee, and worse at spellcasting/archery.

[Pete Mack]

Rogues have a different advantage: they can be very careful about what fights to pick. They have good detection, with lower SP than rangers. They have ridiculously good stealth, that gains a point every 10 character levels. And they have a full detect object spell; they don't have to rely on the relatively rare !Enlightenment potion, that other classes need to save for levels with greater vaults. This is what "live by their wits" means in the class help info.

This more than balances the combination of bad stealth compensated by healing spell that Paladins get. A starting rogue is much stronger than a starting paladin. (Of course, an endgame paladin is a pure tank, and is essentially indestructible.)

[Will]

I have to admit I really appreciated my HElf's ranger's stealth (compared to the HT warrior), it was nice to be able to sneak by some monsters, or to prepare the battleground with RoP, get buffed, etc. right next to a mob!

Detect object sounds great. I know at the end I was quaffing a !Enlightenment every level since I had so many of them, and it really helped cherry pick the items and even the levels.

I've tried a mage and after some early deaths at dlvl 1 or 2 due to bad luck (Grip on dlvl 1 = GG) I managed to get one to level 9 and could really feel the difference in firepower in those early levels. Sadly that wasn't enough for a pseudo-dragon I met on dlvl 8 with a monster feeling level of 3 (WTF).