[priest] Gear, level advice and resists

[Dragget]

I've been working on this priest lately alongside my mage:
http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=20037 (updated)

I am currently at 1800', wondering what changes I need to make to go deeper. According to the guide I found here, I am missing some important things that I will need soon or should already have at this depth, particularly confusion resistance and poison resistance. For some reason on this character, I have had HORRIBLE luck in the dungeon.

Weapon:
To date, I have found ONE artifact weapon that is "blessed" and won't cause me a penalty to my spell failure rate (Aeglin) and I am currently using a Holy Avenger weapon because that one gives me +4 WIS, without which my WIS would be 18/190 instead of 18/***. It would be nice to have the extra damage, but it's not ENOUGH extra to justify that increase in spell failure rate/mana pool. UPDATE: the last level I cleared had a nice vault, picked up FOUR HA weapons, sold 2, then found another one for sale in the black market (Katana). That one has the most damage, but only +2 WIS so I need to wait to get +1 WIS elsewhere on gear before I can wield it without dropping my WIS below 18/***. That leaves me with two HA weapons to choose between now (Executioner's Sword vs. Lucerne Hammer), while keeping the Katana and Aeglin to decide on later after I get enough WIS to compensate for what I'd lose wielding either of those.

Rings:
Currently, I have STR and DEX rings equipped, but I also have a Ring of Damage (+10) and a Ring of Constitution (+5). Should I switch one of the equipped ones out for one of the others?

Bows:
I just found Amrod, but I'm currently using a Lothlorien bow with the same multiplier (x4). Am I better off sticking with that, or would the +2 STR and CON on Amrod outweigh the +5 DEX on the Lothlorien bow? (The Lothlorien bow also has Free Action and See Invisible, but I have those covered in other slots so that doesn't really factor in.) This last run also yielded a Lothlorien Longbow (x5), s that is probably better than either of the other ones even with 2 less DEX, right?

Resists:
I'm missing permanent poison resist. This is not optional... I fought one AMHD but it hit me with a breath attack (poison) that took me from 100% to less than 10% and I had to use Heal to top off so I could kill it. I have avoided those bastards since then. I can take on the Red/White ones no problem, since I have permanent Fire/Cold on my armor and temporary Fire/Cold via my Resist Heat and Cold spell. As I go deeper though, I know I will not be able to avoid everything with Poison/Acid/Electric damage and I will need some temp resists for these as well as permanent resist on my gear. I have not seen any potions that cover these for temp resists, so do I need to carry rings or something? I know those activate for temp resist on some of those elements, but that's a lot of inventory slots to allocate...

Stats:
My Wisdom is maxed, but for some reason, I am not finding very many stat potions: I have bought nearly as many from the black market as found in the dungeon... a couple of potions of Augmentation helped, and I'm almost there with DEX/CON, but STR is still at only 16, so without the +6 bonus from my gear, I'd still be struggling there. Got some STR out of that vault and when I got back, the black market had CON and DEX for sale.

For contrast, here is my mage:

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=20016

She just found Ringil, has all of the dungeon spellbooks except one, is almost completely maxed on stats, has lots of permanent speed, and is ready to dive. She has also found multiple copies of all the priest books, but all I ever see on my priest is [Resistances of Scarabtarices] and multiple copies of [Ethereal Openings]. Is there a specific depth where certain books are more likely to show up? ...AAAAAND got [Godly Insights] from the Ant Queen on that same level, so I have a slot freed up since I no longer have to carry around detection rod or identify scrolls/staves.

[Monkey Face]

For a priest at the point you're at, DEX and weapon damage should be fairly low on the priority list since most of your fighting should be through Orb of Draining, especially against evil enemies since it does double damage.

I noticed you have an enchant weapon scroll in your home. No reason not to read it and enchant something.

As far as the priest books go, each is native to a different depth, with the stronger ones being deeper. I believe native depth starts at level 40 for Ethereal Openings, 50 for Godly Insights, 60 for Purifications and Healing, etc. So going deeper will definitely make it more likely you'll find those.

Given that you're at CL37, you should be able to go significantly deeper as long as you pick your fights carefully. You should have Teleport Other in Ethereal Openings to get rid of monsters you don't want to fight, especially now that you have pretty much unlimited detection.

[Derakon]

Ignore TANG's recommended abilities list. If I could redact it from the Internet I would. It's just a collection of groupthink from the early 2000's. Not only have the depths of items and monsters been substantially rejiggered since then, but also we've proven that you aren't going to instantly go up in a puff of smoke if you dare descend into the dungeon without so-called "adequate" equipment.

Rule of thumb for diving: if you feel safe, you're too shallow. You're never safe in the dungeon, so feeling safe is false confidence and is ironically likely to get you killed.

Just be careful around monsters that you aren't familiar with. The big threats for poison resistance are Ancient Multihued Dragons and Drolems, for example; avoid them and you don't need poison resistance. (Well, there's Great Swamp Wyrms and a couple of uniques too, but they show up later). Protection from confusion is always only a nice-to-have; just carry potions to cure it and Staves of Teleport (which can be used when confused) in case you run into a monster that keeps confusing you over and over again, preventing you from getting a non-potion turn.

[Monkey Face]

Also since you're at 100% saving throw, things like confusion, blindness and stunning should only happen in melee. Another reason to try to fight things at a distance using OoD and archery.

[Dragget]

For a priest at the point you're at, DEX and weapon damage should be fairly low on the priority list since most of your fighting should be through Orb of Draining, especially against evil enemies since it does double damage.

Agreed. Most of my damage is at a distance with OoD/Dispells versus mobs and bow versus single targets. That last level though with the vault, I fought the Queen Ant, Khamûl, the Black Easterling, Ren the Unclean, and cleared out a snake pit full of nagas and hydras. Result: all my mana potions are used up, so now, if I get stuck in a low mana situation and have to fall back to melee on my Glyph, I want to do the most damage per round I can. In this situation, it'd be good to know what's best: Ring of STR is +5, so that stays, but for the other finger, I have Damage (10), Accuracy (15), DEX (4) to pick from.

Given that you're at CL37, you should be able to go significantly deeper as long as you pick your fights carefully. You should have Teleport Other in Ethereal Openings to get rid of monsters you don't want to fight, especially now that you have pretty much unlimited detection.

This has already come up. I had to abandon one level with a vault earlier, due to Ar-Pharazôn the Golden, who was too fast-moving, took very little damage, and who I didn't dare melee... he's also a summoner and heals himself, and every time I teleported him away, he was back in minuntes.

Ignore TANG's recommended abilities list. If I could redact it from the Internet I would.

Good to know, guess I was more prepared than I thought. Eventually, I will HAVE to have some better luck, and deeper means better item rolls, so as long as I continue to make liberal use of Teleport Other and detect at every stage, hopefully I can avoid getting burned. I am on the lookout for more permanent speed: I've already run up against several uniques who are way too fast for me to deal with effectively. (Balrog, Eöl, Ar-Pharazôn)

EDIT: The black market just came through for me again with a copy of [Holy Infusions]

[Monkey Face]

The fact that you couldn't handle a significantly out of depth unique shouldn't enter into your judgement as to how deep to go. In general, uniques are tough at their native level and should frequently be left alone, more so when they are out of depth in a vault. Remember that the deeper you are the more likely you are to find better gear.