What am I doing wrong?

[Moving Pictures]

There's no sliding scale. Each column corresponds to one equipment slot, with @ corresponding to innate traits. All traits that aren't explicitly "+1 to whatever" are binary -- you either have them or you don't. The only ones that stack are that you can combine a permanent source of resistance with a temporary source of resistance to take 1/9th normal damage (instead of the usual 1/3rd for single-resist). Permanent does not stack with permanent.

Ah, so the letters correspond not with a scale, but an ID for a particular item. Of course, now that I look at it, it seems so .... obvious.

[jevansau]

If you have rune of protection as a spell, one variation on an anti-summoning corridor that works particularly well as a ranger is:

WSW
SW
WRW
WWRW
WWWRW
WWWWRW
WWWWWRW
WWWWSW
where S is corridor, W is wall and R is rune of protection. Vary the number of R's according to the strength of the monster, and sit on the bottom R.
You end up getting a lot of free shots, the monster can only summon behind itself, and you can step to the final free space if you need to heal etc.

[Adam]

If you have rune of protection as a spell, one variation on an anti-summoning corridor that works particularly well as a ranger is:

WSW
SW
WRW
WWRW
WWWRW
WWWWRW
WWWWWRW
WWWWSW
where S is corridor, W is wall and R is rune of protection. Vary the number of R's according to the strength of the monster, and sit on the bottom R.
You end up getting a lot of free shots, the monster can only summon behind itself, and you can step to the final free space if you need to heal etc.

If you place the last S under the R and you stand on it you can even shoot the monster without it having LOS on you (so can't even breath on you). But I actually find that tactic rather unfair so I never cast rune. Actually I would even change the game in a way that @ could have only 1 rune on the field so the above would not be possible.

[Moving Pictures]

If you have rune of protection as a spell, one variation on an anti-summoning corridor that works particularly well as a ranger is:

WSW
SW
WRW
WWRW
WWWRW
WWWWRW
WWWWWRW
WWWWSW
where S is corridor, W is wall and R is rune of protection. Vary the number of R's according to the strength of the monster, and sit on the bottom R.
You end up getting a lot of free shots, the monster can only summon behind itself, and you can step to the final free space if you need to heal etc.

Ooooo.... I likey. I tried runes with another char, but found them of no use, because the summoned critters could break it without much effort. But I can't fiigure out how it could be employed outside of a vault situation ... but I'm welcome to input.

Would it also make sense to park some runes on both sides of an opening (say a vault) so that outbound nasties can't summon multiples?


PS: offed Osse, after a whole bucketload of TOs and phase doors (to change positions to allow for better angle on the summoned nasties for the aforementioned TO.)

[Moving Pictures]

Sweet mother of ...

.... Sauron is kaput.

[Derakon]

Congratulations! Good luck with Morgoth.

[Moving Pictures]

Congratulations! Good luck with Morgoth.

Actually, in the end, I had essentially over-prepared for Morgoth. In a nutshell, as long as you have enough *healing* and "life" potions, combined with enough mass banishment scrolls, and can match speed and do some damage (I was up to 37 with toys and a spell; punching out a crapton per arrow) it's just a simple matter of going to-to-toe with the old blighter.

I am now cautiously diving a kobold rogue... the first flavour got obliterated at its 12th level due to a wifey-induced accidental mouse movement at a critical moment; the second died a wretched death this morning.

This gal lucked into Collanon on the sixth level. Her life expectancy is therefore better, i would argue. And kobold means that rPois is taken care of from the get go. Plus she has a longbow of power (how a kobold is supposed to hold such a beast, I dare not fathom), so now can do the damage-at range. Dumb as a stump, though, so no mana points.

[Pete Mack]

Stealth* and detection are key for Kobold rogue. Initially, it's melee is pretty weak, but its survivability is high, so long as you are careful in what monsters you face. A few magic devices (or a good bow) can help a lot. You *really* can't clear levels. But you can dive pretty fast and pick off targets of opportunity. (A few lesser hounds will level you up fast, for example.)

* I'd pick Elvenkind shield over Celegorm, given the choice, but it's a great find at DL 6 in any case.

[Chud]

I've been grinding so much on my current game that I stayed on dungeon level 11 from CL 15 all the way to CL29....

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Ok, actually, I found a potion of experience... :-)

[Moving Pictures]

* I'd pick Elvenkind shield over Celegorm, given the choice, but it's a great find at DL 6 in any case.

My error, I meant "Collanon" as in the teleporty cloak.

[Moving Pictures]

UPDATE #2 - the good, the bad, the ugly

Alright, got a priest down to L99, and offed Sauron. Impressive, too, given that I do not have pStun.

Previously, I managed to get a kobold rogue that far, but it died a spectacularly messy death at the hands of Morgoth. Burned through a dozen mass banishing scrolls, a crate of *healling* and *iife* potions before many bad things happened in one round, not the least of which was a balrog draining all the charges out of the Staff of Teleportmybuttouttahere.

My issue now. I do not think the priest is even remotely able to take on Morgoth. I got over-confident after the relatively easy take-down with the ranger (brace of potions/tons of arrows).

With the priest, speed is not an issue. Ringil+Nenya+ROS12+Boots(5) mean I don't really need to think about more speed (though if a potion gives me an extra move over dozen turns, what the heck.
My concerns:
1) The anti-summoning alley won't work worth a hoot, given Morgoth's tunnelling.
2) I have most of the resists covered (at the cost of AC) but lack pStun.
3) there are too many nasty uniques out there, including Tarrasque and Osse, who might well show up at the final stand.

My plan is to lurk around the lower levels, scumming for something meatier that might give pStun, and also knock off a few remaining Uniques to make life easier in the final battle. I have more rods of TO than I know what to do with (didn't use a one in the battle with Sauron - took him out with Orbs of Draining/Wand of Anhilation/Arrows).

I also want to bring a briefcase of mass banishing scrolls, so will go looking for those.

So... scumming for scrolls/toys for a bit - does that seem a valid plan?

[Philip]

The handy thing about priests is that there is literally nothing they can't do, at least under the old class system. They have 0% fail on all the important teleportation, a decent-ish spell offence (if you happen to have some easy way to regenerate mana, it is quite possible to kill Morgoth with just Orb of Draining), Banish Evil (like TO but works on all evil monsters in line of sight, including ones you can't see (same targetting rules as Dispel Evil), and of course, 0% fail cheap healing.

One of the ways a Morgoth fight can easily go down is that every time Morgoth summons something scary but not immediately life-threatening, you teleport Morgoth away, use Word of Destruction, and wait for him to come back. When Morgoth summons something weak, uses a weak spell, or moves towards you, you use Orb/shoot an arrow/melee as appropriate, and when he deals a lot of direct damage, you Heal. With a small stockpile of Restore Mana you should be able to win rather easily. When Morgoth summons something very scary, you either Banish Evil, to get rid of it, or you Teleport, to get away. Then you wait for Morgoth, and repeat.

Scumming for anything else should be quite unnecessary.

[Derakon]

]My concerns:
1) The anti-summoning alley won't work worth a hoot, given Morgoth's tunnelling.
2) I have most of the resists covered (at the cost of AC) but lack pStun.
3) there are too many nasty uniques out there, including Tarrasque and Osse, who might well show up at the final stand.

1) The general recommendation for Morgoth specifically is to use Word of Destruction before he enters the arena. Don't use it while he's nearby, because he'll get blasted off the level and you'll have to come back to a fully-healed Morgy. But Word of Destruction does nearly as good a job of breaking up LOS as an antisummoning corridor does. If Morgoth summons, you can Phase Door to break LOS, then run away a bit, and because Morgoth is the fastest monster in the game, he'll catch up before any of his summons do. If things start getting crowded, you can teleport Morgoth away, then use Word of Destruction, or Banish/Mass Banish.

Priests also get access to Banish Evil, which is a great spell so long as everything in LOS is evil. Banish Evil teleports monsters instead of removing them from the level, which importantly means that they cannot be summoned again.

2) Resists are not a big deal against Morgoth, because his biggest attacks are unresistable. They only matter if you expose yourself to attacks from his summons, which you should be avoiding doing as much as possible. Your rogue died because you were trying to fight Morgoth and a balrog at the same time, for example.

pStun is useful, so if you can get it without losing other important abilities, it's worth doing. But you can also just chug a healing potion as soon as you get stunned. As a priest, you shouldn't expect to need to drink many healing potions for actual HP restoration, since you can cast high-HP heals with a 0% failure rate so long as you aren't stunned. So drinking big heals just to clear a status effect is not a big deal for you.

3) The Word of Destruction tactics I outlined in (1) deal with uniques as well as normal monsters. I never bother to kill all uniques before fighting Morgoth. That said, some players do try to make it so Morgoth has only generics to summon when they fight him. Just be aware that the longer you spend in the dungeon, the more opportunities you give the game to kill you. Ordinary monsters can easily be just as dangerous as uniques.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

...My issue now. I do not think the priest is even remotely able to take on Morgoth. I got over-confident after the relatively easy take-down with the ranger (brace of potions/tons of arrows)....

My plan is to lurk around the lower levels, scumming for something meatier that might give pStun, and also knock off a few remaining Uniques to make life easier in the final battle....

I also want to bring a briefcase of mass banishing scrolls, so will go looking for those.

So... scumming for scrolls/toys for a bit - does that seem a valid plan?

Please read http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthr...826#post107826

Then go to guns on the Big Boss. Good luck!

[Pete Mack]

Note that Banish Evil doesn't work well if you are meleeing Morgoth. Once LOS gets broken up, only a few monsters will be removed.