How to prep character equipment after reaching L98

**luneya** · November 20, 2017, 07:39

Actually, it looks to me like you're almost ready to go with what you have. The biggest concern is that you have stockpiled staves of destruction rather than scrolls. That is a big problem, as you're most likely going to melee Morgoth, and he drains charges.

Keep replaying levels until you've rectified the destruction problem. If you happen to find other gear upgrades in the process, great. If not, you can win with what you have.

And yes, keeping up those buffs full-time is a good idea. They certainly improve your survivability, and as a rogue, you don't really need to save mp for other things. Detection perhaps, but basic detection is cheap, you have telepathy, and enlightenment potions are common in the late game.

**Pete Mack** · November 20, 2017, 08:13

You're just about good to go.7 ?Mass banishment and 5 ? banishment is enough, and over 600 damage per round is phenomenal, which you will get easily with triple (hero/berserk/blessed) buffing. Those spells are undervalued: they don't just increase hit rate; they improve damage by around 20-30 points per turn with a MoD.

As for Destruction: make sure you go into the fight with the staffs uncharged. When you need to clean up, charge one and use it fully before going back into combat.

Make sure to carry SCROLLS (25 or so is enough) of phase door to the final fight. The spell with 5% fail rate is not good enough. You can take MB1 as a backup if you have room in your pack. Most important books are 3 (in case M summons Q's), 4 (haste self, teleport other), 5 (shield, resistance), and 8 (heroism, berserk, recharge if you take staffs.) You can leave everything else behind, with the possible exception of book 1 I mentioned.

Edit:
Also, go ahead and kill Sauron. That will let you estimate better how much more Healing you may need.

**Grotug** · November 20, 2017, 12:52

Can you enchant your MOD to like +13 or +14 dam? Right now it's only at +10.

**Grimborn** · November 20, 2017, 18:59

Ah I see. Cool advice everyone thanks!!! I hadn't tried any enhances on the MoD, that's a good idea. Had no idea about the drains. I guess I was also thinking, with people talking about how diving is such a good game strategy. I kind of expected to see constantly awesome stuff on L98. But artifacts and major vaults are still about the same commonness as in the last 20 or so levels. A lot of the major vaults with uniques are also just so difficult that they seem practically impenetrable. I guess this was just my mistake to think it would be a lot easier to get perfect equipment this deep in the dungeon.

**Pete Mack** · November 20, 2017, 19:20

The thing about vaults is: you don't actually have to kill the monsters there. (Though at 600 damage per turn AND 4(!) Rods of healing, there's not much you can't kill... certainly any undead will fall fast. Consider clearing undead pits for consumables.)
You're also making a strategic error in a search for "perfect" equipment. You're character is PLENTY strong to kill Morgoth. (I mean: it's very rare to see a stronger character.) At that point, you shouldn't be looking for equipment at all (though it's nice to find some if you happen upon it.) You should only be looking for enough potions and scrolls to win the game.

**Estie** · November 20, 2017, 20:38

As for ammo, Cubragol is a stat stick and doesnt do great damage. You can still shoot at M when you have nothing better to do, but if you need inventory space consider dropping all ammo.

**Pete Mack** · November 21, 2017, 00:33

What Estie says. Cubragol lets you get by without using a speed ring. That's it's only serious purpose (though the fire brand can help against select monsters.) Don't go out of your way to use archery against Morgoth with it. Instead, put on a damge ring(as you're already doing.) Without Cubragol or a certain 4d5 longsword, nearly all (standarts) characters are forced to use at least one speed ring against M, along with good Boots of Speed/Elvenkind.

**Grimborn** · November 21, 2017, 02:06

Whoa ... killed him ... that was pretty crazy. Destroyed the level first to give plenty of place to work, that way it didn't matter that he drained the staff. It felt like it took 5+ hits for each * of his HP. I used a ton of phased door scrolls, probably 5-10 healing, 2-3 *healing*, 3-4 mass banishment, 10-20 CCW. The mass banishment was incredibly powerful and necessary. He summoned some really bad uniques, Tarrasque showing up right next to me. Had to teleport away at times a well. After you fight Morgoth you can see how it puts everything else in perspective. So nasty. Actually his hits weren't too bad, only took me down about 60-100 HP each round, but the mana storm spells hit me for 500-600 about once every 5-10 turns.

Can reflect on this more later, but jeeze. One thing for sure is that it's so much better to be in melee with bad monsters than to be in breath range.

Ahh, the satisfaction ... finally winning after first playing about 20 years ago as a kid. I admit I was forking save files to backup on this character. It would be brutal to try to win without any fall back save file. Such a hard game to win legit!

**Derakon** · November 21, 2017, 02:21

Congrats on the win! A couple of notes:

* Whenever a monster drains charges, they heal. So you don't want to be carrying any charged items in your inventory when fighting charge drainers.
* Being outside of melee range with enemies with powerful ranged attacks does not result in them using those ranged attacks more often. Monster AI is simply "If I don't use a spell, attack; if I can't attack, move closer".

**Pete Mack** · November 21, 2017, 07:35

Congrats!
Sounds like all the pieces are in place to stop backing up save files. Mostly it's a matter of a modest amount of planning ahead, and a sufficient degree of cowardice. And most importantly, somehow avoiding death to boredom.
Your description of the fight is pretty typical. Yeah, you have to phase away a lot--both to heal, and to avoid summons. And yeah, it takes a lot of melee. As Derakon mentioned, ranged combat is a lot easier, but is certainly less satisfying.

**Grotug** · November 21, 2017, 12:12

Congrats!

There came a point where I stopped force quitting after dying. The first time I "won" the game I cheated and it felt ... well, cheap! Angband is a good tool for practicing non-attachment hah.

**grumbleguts** · February 8, 2018, 12:03

The fight with morgoth doesn't seem typical to me, I have found in this new version (4.1.1) morgoth is much harder than he has ever been. I have over this past spring and summer (southern) given birth to, loved, nurtured and raised about 9 characters who have met morgoth (A far greater number that haven't even gotten past a red mold on level 2 of course.)

And morgoth not once have I even scratched him, after sauron being a doddle.

With resists to everything under the sun, he hits with 800-1000 hitpoints each time. One character used up 31 *heal* and life potions and got him down to half stars before I bailed with 200 hp only to be killed by a horned reaper or something.

Is there some watered down version of morgoth I don't know about.

**Philip** · February 8, 2018, 12:38

What class is this with? Warriors tend to have enough AC to take like 500 average damage in melee, with a bunch of free turns due to the less scary spells, in my experience, and everyone else either has free healing, or buffs to take a lot less damage, or has no business being in melee with Morgoth.

I looked, but I couldn't find any character dumps. Those would be extremely helpful in diagnosing the problem.

**PowerWyrm** · February 8, 2018, 13:19

Originally posted by grumbleguts

The fight with morgoth doesn't seem typical to me, I have found in this new version (4.1.1) morgoth is much harder than he has ever been.

The Morgoth fight is actually trivial in the 4.1 version... if you remember that he's susceptible to stunning.

How to prep character equipment after reaching L98

How to prep character equipment after reaching L98

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