A Total Newbie Guide by an Almost Total Newbie

[krazyhades]

How much damage can you even do with a (+15,+15) shovel? 250?

With the right build in the right variant with the right shovel, you can do over 2,000.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=20095

[Ingwe Ingweron]

How much damage can you even do with a (+15,+15) shovel? 250?

MattB won Vanilla with a store bought shovel. He got up to over 400 damage per round, with about 8 blows per round. http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=16689

[Sky]

so, 300. unless you have a +2 blows item, that is.

[Holy_Rage]

Quite a lot happened since the last bullet set. I managed to kill Sauron and I am getting ready to meet Morgoth... win or lose, another set of bullets shall be posted after the final battle.

Ladder dump

[Holy_Rage]

Alas, Var the Priest died at DL99 from a bile demon's poisonous breath.

Thank you all for the advice.

Last bullet set:

20) Always have two ways or more to reliably hurt enemies. I was OoD obsessed and ignoring ranged and melee damage cost me in time.
21) Resistances matter, having no rPois brought me low from 750+ HP to -25.
22) Never fight in any other state than fully healed if possible.
23) Glyph of warding is your friend and can make things considerably easier even for an inept melee priest.
24) Try always to face one enemy at a time.
25) Do not ignore the merits of telepathy and See Invisible.
26) Elemental immunities are true game changers and can make life much easier.
27) Prolific enemy summoning can be a real pain to deal with.
28) Cones, breath weapons, spells that cause elemental damage can wreck equipment. Make sure to move out of the way.
29) Playing with company is invaluable

[wobbly]

watched you play so going to comment. I have a brief/blunt style sometimes, don't take my comments too critically.

Alas, Var the Priest died at DL99 from a bile demon's poisonous breath.

Thank you all for the advice.

Last bullet set:

20) Always have two ways or more to reliably hurt enemies. I was OoD obsessed and ignoring ranged and melee damage cost me in time.

Teleport other. You don't need to fight things.

21) Resistances matter, having no rPois brought me low from 750+ HP to -25.

rbase - fire, cold, elec, acid, poison!

22) Never fight in any other state than fully healed if possible.

yes! The only thing more important than healing is tele-leveling.

23) Glyph of warding is your friend and can make things considerably easier even for an inept melee priest.

was cute & clever to watch this. Ultimately you could of skipped this. see comment to 20

24) Try always to face one enemy at a time.

agree. Other than thinking there is a more fun way to do this. get a win first, before reconsidering.

25) Do not ignore the merits of telepathy and See Invisible.

notice you had this on swap. Works, but better to have it not. You know?

26) Elemental immunities are true game changers and can make life much easier.

they can. Experts will tell you they are unnecessary. They are 1 less thing to think & worry about.

27) Prolific enemy summoning can be a real pain to deal with.

yeah.

28) Cones, breath weapons, spells that cause elemental damage can wreck equipment. Make sure to move out of the way.
29) Playing with company is invaluable

Insert random wisdom.

Edit: I'll add another that I mentioned on-line. Searching for the perfect gear setup when you are already Morgoth-ready. Good way to lose concentration & RIP.

[Sky]

*fire is important, the rest are meh. If only we had *shards, *pois and *time ...

[Pete Mack]

One thing about priest: Holy Orb is a fine spell up to around CL 30 or a bit later. Once you've got good melee damage and low-fail (5% or less) on healing spell, melee is probably cheaper than Orb in terms of risk and mana cost for most monsters. Orb is particularly terrible against non-evil monsters. Use devices or archery if your melee is bad and you're not doing well with Orb. Yes, it's better than most mage spells. But it's still not all that great at a high level.

[Sky]

at 15 mana a pop, Orb is really only useful when you are CL50 and need to clear a vampire pit and can't be arsed to do it in melee.

[Pete Mack]

@sky--sure. I would not use Orb as a Paladin. But it only costs 7 Mana as a priest...and it does more damage, too.

[CivBesch]

Very interesting information.

I only have a small problem. I will probably need 4 times as many slots and 3 times as much carrying weight-capacity in order to be able to take all of the items with me, that are advised in the previous lists.

I also probably will need about twice as many slots for wielding stuff.

Or is there a version of angband in which one can carry much more?

[Derakon]

Very interesting information.

I only have a small problem. I will probably need 4 times as many slots and 3 times as much carrying weight-capacity in order to be able to take all of the items with me, that are advised in the previous lists.

I also probably will need about twice as many slots for wielding stuff.

Or is there a version of angband in which one can carry much more?

This is a core part of the game! It is impossible to have all the gear and stats to be fully prepared for every situation, so you have to figure out ways to make do without preparations. This can mean avoiding fights, arranging substitutes*, or simply doing without and hoping for the best. Deciding which things are the most important to prepare for is a core part of optimizing your kit. Would you rather have resistance to nether or nexus? Is the combination of +1 DEX/CON and resistance to light better than the combination of +2 STR and resistance to darkness? What if you equip this other item as well?

Really, at a high level the game consists of a) deciding on a kit, and b) using that kit effectively in the dungeon.

* For example, Cure Critical Wounds can substitute for Healing, if you're fighting at range and are 1 step away from blocking LOS with your target: step out of range, then spend multiple turns drinking potions. It's not a great substitute, but if you can set it up, then you'll be able to handle threats that wouldn't otherwise be feasible due to lack of healing.

[CivBesch]

Thanks for the advice Derakon.

You've been giving some very good advice in my posts.

This one is probably a bit high for a newbie, but I am sure I will get it in time. The difficulty in the beginning is to decide what is important to carry and what is not.

As I am playing in the mode to be able to sell in the shops, slots become more precious too, as you want to carry stuff with you upstairs to be able to sell.

My character is currently at level 13 and I am exploring the dungeon at 300 depth.

[Pete Mack]

@Civbesch--
CL 13 DL 6 is extremely shallow. It'll teach you the wrong lessons: at some point, it *will* become impossible to kill all the monsters you see. It's also painful to lose a character that takes so long to level up. (It's worth noting here that expert players win in roughly 100,000 player turns.)
As an exercise, try to keep DL >= CL in your next game. And don't clear levels. A half-orc warrior is a good race for playing with. Put all your starting points into DEX and STR, and see how fast (in player turns) you can get to DL 20.
You'll need a ?recall, some curing potions, ?Phase Door, and a dagger/main gauche/rapier to start with. A bit of cheap armor helps too.

[Monkey Face]

As I am playing in the mode to be able to sell in the shops, slots become more precious too, as you want to carry stuff with you upstairs to be able to sell.

Switch to no sell. You'll make up for the loss in gold from sales by getting increased value from the gold pieces you find in the dungeon. This will free up inventory slots and increase your speed as you won't be slowed down by heavy armor or weapons that you're saving just to sell.

I was skeptical about this when it first came out but now I wouldn't consider going back.