Down to DL 94 ironman

[AndyS]

I have the realization that gives me no better shot than if I was 50 levels higher if I dont have the gear for the last 2 battles. Like I dont have disenchantment resistance yet and without that I know it's a lost cause. I made a really idiotic decision to fight the vampire unique with the long name that starts with T. I used up every single heal potion I had because I reached that point where "now I have to kill him". So stupid, I quaffed a ton of ccw because he kept confusing me. When what I should have done is had a few curing staffs that id long ditched. Also I forgot to wear my dexterity ring and wore a constitution ring that I walk around with instead or that battle would not have been so costly.

Anyway that was a lesson learned, it didnt kill me so Im stronger. And regathering potions.

Slots are a major dilemma. I find I spend nearly as much time trying to decide what to toss as I do playing. For instance - I have a damage ring +14. Right now my dex ring +5 is giving me more damage and my dex stats are maxed. Im level 43 though. Will my dexterity increase as I level up the same way constitution does? Or will that damage ring remain useless. Just feels so wrong to kill a 14 damage ring, Ive craved them many times.

Also Im dragging around hithlomir just for nether resistance vs undead as well as a *slay undead* weapon. Undead drop a lot of potions that I will need. Would you carry hithlomir just for that? Or deal with the nether. I like the extra damage from the weapon, i dont want to drop that yet.

Last two slots that are annoying me are potion of life and rune of protection. In all of my games Ive never had more than a few of those if that. If I understand correctly Sauron and Morgoth bust those runes pretty quick anyway. Ill be meleeing (not sure if thats a word) them from a hole so I dont want separation. And im not clear if using a turn laying a RoP is worth it. Leaning toward not saving slots for only 1 or 2 of the aforementioned tools.



edit i want the trident of wrath. That sucker has been a warm blanket for me in past games

another edit, the above doent really matter. Feel like if you try ironman dont ask for a walkthrough, everything i asked can be ascertained. Potions are easy enough to come by. Just need an amulet with disenchantment, some more speed, and a better weapon. I dont want to drop too fast anymnore without those things in case i get stuck on 98 without them and with most of the deadliest uniques still alive. I just got rohirrim which i love but Huan always scares the crap out of me with no shard resistance so slugging along with arvedui in my backpack.

[Derakon]

Disenchantment resistance is not a requirement for the final fights. Artifacts have disenchantment resistance. It's not perfect; IIRC 2/3rds of the time they avoid losing pluses. But that should be enough to see you through to beating Morgoth, and what're you going to do with your fancy gear after he's dead? You've won!

Also of course, disenchant resistance is pretty useless in those fights unless you plan on meleeing them.

I wouldn't bother to keep Rune of Protection or Hithlomir in an ironman game, personally. Slots are far too precious. For nether resistance, Restore Life Levels potions are reasonably common; you can carry them and then discard them as soon as you find something better to use with the slot. I might keep the Life potion, but odds are it'll get drunk as soon as I'm in a position where it'll do any significant good.

Honestly ironman is something like 75% knowing what to prepare for and 25% making do with subpar gear/consumables because you don't have a home to stash things in.

[wobbly]

It would be easier to reply if I you posted the character dump or at the least the character class.

Personal opinion is constant armour swaps to cover resists is a recipe for disaster. It's one more thing to keep track of, one more distraction. I'd rather be focused on my hps & the location of dangerous monsters then excessive gear juggling.

[AndyS]

Also of course, disenchant resistance is pretty useless in those fights unless you plan on meleeing them.

I wouldn't bother to keep Rune of Protection or Hithlomir in an ironman game, personally. Slots are far too precious. For nether resistance, Restore Life Levels potions are reasonably common; you can carry them and then discard them as soon as you find something better to use with the slot. I might keep the Life potion, but odds are it'll get drunk as soon as I'm in a position where it'll do any significant good.

Honestly ironman is something like 75% knowing what to prepare for and 25% making do with subpar gear/consumables because you don't have a home to stash things in.

Hi Derakon, I dont mean to cherry pick you reply (which I am grateful for) only editing to illustrate the things Im not sure of.

"disenchant resistance is pretty useless in those fights unless you plan on meleeing them."

I do plan on meleeing them. That's my only chance as a warrior (sorry i didnt even describe the most essential part of my game). I know enough to leave items with charges aside for the last 2 battles, but maybe I have overestimated disenchantment. I wonder now how much disenchantment they can do in one fight and whether it is enough to sway the battle.

"I wouldn't bother to keep Rune of Protection or Hithlomir in an ironman game, personally. Slots are far too precious. For nether resistance, Restore Life Levels potions are reasonably common; you can carry them and then discard them as soon as you find something better to use with the slot. I might keep the Life potion, but odds are it'll get drunk as soon as I'm in a position where it'll do any significant good."

Thank you. I was leaning the same way. Ive won a couple fof times now in regular games and i dont think rune of protection was much help. Thats going or at least ill save it as long as i can for maybe a weaker unique encounter. I dumped evenstar which was a good item for restoring life levels but my CL was still low enough that just killing powerful monsters restored it. That may come back to haunt me but I found it a bit of a nuisance. It took a long time to recharge.

I'll keep the life potion until I absolutely need a slot or I get a few more. I have my doubts about getting a few more and really they dont seem much more valuable than more common high healing potions. I might hang on to hithlomir (if i get no other nether resist) for maybe an undead room if I encounter one but yeah, it's been a bit of an albatross. Maybe I should have dumped it instead of evenstar a lon gtime ago.

Thanks for the advice. I think it's so cool that people still love this great game. Id forgotten about it for decades and when I picked it up again I wondered of people would even remember it. To my delight, not only do they, its still updated, and has a really nice community of fans. I think this is my favourite game ever. Thank you.

One more edit, this was the first game that I learned that you can use items without picking them up. Doh.

[Derakon]

Hi Derakon, I dont mean to cherry pick you reply (which I am grateful for) only editing to illustrate the things Im not sure of.

"disenchant resistance is pretty useless in those fights unless you plan on meleeing them."

I do plan on meleeing them. That's my only chance as a warrior (sorry i didnt even describe the most essential part of my game).

It's not out of the question that a warrior could kill Morgoth with a bow -- they're pretty good archers, if obviously not as good as rangers. But it's also absolutely doable to kill Morgoth in melee without disenchantment resistance. Having a high AC helps, since that makes Morgoth miss more often. But also bear in mind that the only pluses that really matter, in terms of not wanting to lose them, are to-dam boosts. Let's say that your weapon and gloves both have them. That means that 6 out of 8 equipment slots that could get hit by disenchantment don't really matter. If both weapon and gloves are also artifacts, then that means the odds of you losing pluses that you care about are only (1/3) * (2/8) = 1 in 12, assuming you get hit! If Morgoth's chances of hitting you with the disenchant attack are 60% (number more or less pulled out of my butt), then the odds of getting disenchanted where it hurts are 1 in 20.

You can handle losing some damage pluses in one out of every 20 melee rounds against Morgoth.

[Sphara]

Hmm, I would carry Scrolls of Rune of Protection as an ironman warrior.

I do not know the formula that determines how easily Morgoth breaks the glyph, but I've had fights where I have blown two health stars off him under just one Rune's duration. That would make a good case of carrying those.

Not a necessity item for the last fights but seriously worth considering. Inventory management is probably the hardest part of the ironman game.

[AndyS]

It's not out of the question that a warrior could kill Morgoth with a bow -- they're pretty good archers.

You can handle losing some damage pluses in one out of every 20 melee rounds against Morgoth.

I have a pretty good crossbow but no slay evil bolts.. Ive always been more comfortable bashing in a closed space, right or wrong my biggest fear is always summons.

Im at 96 now. If I get disenchantment great, I wont fixate on it like I was before reading your advice. I havent found any trickery or weaponmastery amulets so using necklace of dwarves. Constitution is no problem at all, its pretty much ridiculous, well over 1k depending what I wear. Weapon power is iffy, using beaked axe of Hurin. Im a few points low on speed but expect to get those last few levels I hope or else im dead.

[AndyS]

Hmm, I would carry Scrolls of Rune of Protection as an ironman warrior.

Not a necessity item for the last fights but seriously worth considering. Inventory management is probably the hardest part of the ironman game.

Ive kept them. And yeah no question inventory management is by far the most difficult part for me.

[Voovus]

I made a really idiotic decision to fight the vampire unique with the long name that starts with T. I used up every single heal potion I had because I reached that point where "now I have to kill him". So stupid, I quaffed a ton of ccw because he kept confusing me.

Tiny correction: that was a she, not a he.

[MattB]

To be honest, I don't even bother with RoProts in a standard game anymore, let alone ironman. But on the flip side, I can see they would be handy if you're short on *Healing*.

[Grotug]

I rarely collect ?RoP in regular games. Unless you have tons of !*healing* potions, I would hold onto the !Life potion. I would not hold onto armors with low AC. AC is king in warrior, in my opinion. It pretty much trumps all non-essential high resistances. Or put another way, one high (non essential) resist is worth about 14AC. Hithlomir (as I recall) has too big of an AC penalty to be worth lugging around as a warrior.

Nonessential resists, (in my extensive experience as warrior) during late game are in order of unimportance:
rLite,
rDark, (more important in early/mid game than very late game)
rShards (don't forget the Gelugon breathes shards!),
rSound
rNether, IMO hLife is more important than rNether
rChaos,
rDisenchantment

I would value pConf at about 25AC (unless you have *really* high AC). In other words, I will wear armor that gives me a total of 175AC but no pConf over armor that gives me a total of 150AC and pConf (all other things being equal). There's not that many things that chain confuse; just avoid them. The higher AC is so useful for all other fights. This edict becomes more true the faster you are and less true the slower you are (if you have speed issues, the pConf is more valuable).

I would hold onto a good (slays undead powerfully) weapon if you find one as a swap. It's worth the precious inventory slot in my opinion.

I've always had the same concern as you with regards to rDisenchant. Fortunately, I never have to fight the bosses without it, and often play very fast games and always with forced descent (I often find crucial gear on DL99 during fast dives).

If you're having trouble finding gear, get that slay undead weapon and farm drops! If I'm powerful but missing some key resistance or consumables I'll use a staff of summoning in a safe place and recharge it with any recharging scrolls lying around (say after clearing an A pit). Killing the manageable uniques or greater undead or greater dragons summoned yields good drops in this (somewhat) controlled fashion. Only do it if you're powerful, though, or desperate! It's a pretty fun way to play ironman. (obviously don't do it if you don't have a dispensable amount of Teleport other). As a warrior I like killing things, so yeah, I just kill everything I know I can manage for drops and TO what isn't worth the trouble, which are:
The Terrasque
Ancalagon the Black
Huan (nasty breaths)
Carcharoth (nasty breaths)
Kronos (nasty breaths)
Atlas (500+ damage per round is possible)
Arien (stunning might)
Osse (nasty breath)
Radagast (nasty fists, nasty inventory destruction)
Polyphemus (destroys objects, destroys inventory).
Greater Balrgos (stunning might/drains)
Osyluth (might even put him above greater balrogs)
Pit fiends (summons/breaths)
Gelugon (ice/shards breaths)
Wyrm of Many Colors (too many HPs and AC)
Greater Titans (scary fists)
Wyrms of Balance (HP/AC)
Jabberwock if I don't have rChaos (unless I have stupid-good damage output)

Horned Reapers moves a lot up and down on this depending on my damage output and my AC. I'm usually crushing them in the late game, tho.

Everyone else is pretty much open season. When I'm sufficiently strong, I reserve banish scrolls for item destroyers in vaults rather than choas/time/aether hounds. Aether hounds are rarely ever manageable/worth fighting, though.

Targets I go after:
most dragons
all Undead (obviously want to be strong before going after Faegwaeth and the likes).
Once I've graduated from having wands/staves in my inventory the cyan and brown Ls are good targets.
Dreads and dreadmasters are nice.
Vs and Ws you're resistant to.

Just about all Undead are good targets (unless you don't slay undead powerfully). I can never remember if it's nightwalkers or nightcrawlers that disenchant, though.

rDisenchant is fairly common in randarts (I don't play standarts anymore). Belthronding, which has rDisenchant, is fairly common to find. I assume you are checking non-artifacts for rDischentant? It can show up on any piece of Elvenkind armor or Aman cloaks. Obviously Preservation shields are nice, especially mithril ones with stupid amounts of AC!

My favorite weapon as a Warrior is the Great Axe of Aule I believe it's called. Trident of Wrath in mid to mid/late game is awesome, though.

If you come to the Sauron fight and you're nervous about it, kill his entourage first.

Oh, I would keep the damage ring. If you find a high dex bow and high dex gloves you will be happy that you did!

You can start reading toward the end of my very verbose Ironman account if you like: http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showpos...6&postcount=14. I'd scroll down towards the bottom of the linked post to the penultimate pic with the paragraph below it: "Now I'd just like to make a point that I'm almost ready to fight Sauron and I didn't need to go to the bottom of the dungeon to get what I need." It chronicles some of the classic inventory issues one runs into while Ironmanning, among other things. Man, I didn't realize how overdetailed that account was. Basically a novella.

I'm rereading it now and I forgot how fortunate my @ was. Lots of good drops!