Need some advice before diving further

[Wraitheist]

My last priest died at '2500 by going down the stairs into a pack of plasma hounds. My current priest is at '2000. I'm working on maxing stats, but then I'm considering juts diving all the way down as I've seen many here suggest. I'm going to max my stats first and I already have the basic 4 resists, poison, shards, and fear resist, free action, and see invis. I have +3 speed from my armor.

Once my stats are maxed, is there anything else I should make sure to have before diving? I always carry a good supply of Tele Other, !CCW, staves of teleport, phase door, and *destruction* when I can find it. I also only have Etheral Openings...haven't found the others yet.

[Zikke]

I'm not familiar with priests, so you might have as a spell, but be sure you have a staff of Object Detection so you can find goodies on the map. I imagine that is why you would be diving.

[awldune]

Would be nice to have Godly Insights book, a rod of Detection, or ESP so you can detect non-evil monsters.

I don't consider RFear to be a priority at all, especially for praying classes with Remove Fear spell.

RSound is much more important than RShards.

I would want to get my CON up and have at least 600hp before diving below 2200 or so. Watch out for AMHD, and Drolems (non-evil, not detected by ESP) once you get below 2400.

You want 18/200 WIS as soon as possible to get 0% failure on prayers (plus a ton of SP).

[Wraitheist]

Thanks for the advice. I know that rShards and fear aren't all that important, I just happen to get it from my current equipment. I haven't found ESP or rSound yet, unfortunately. My stats will be maxed before I move on, too. What is AMHD?

[awldune]

What is AMHD?

Ancient Multi-Hued Dragon

[Zikke]

If you're going to really start diving, I would say ESP would be required. There is no better tool for knowing exactly what's about to come around that corner. Much better than waiting for them to come around that corner. Also it is invaluable when assessing whether or not to go into a vault.

[Wraitheist]

That sounds like good advice. What are my chances of attaining ESP at dl 2000?

[Mondkalb]

That sounds like good advice. What are my chances of attaining ESP at dl 2000?

Actually not bad.
The Cap of Thranduil is native to dlvl20/1000ft, and there are more sources like headwear of telepathy or amulet of esp and some ego weapons with random abilities.
Headwear of telepathy or esp amulet might be found in the armor shop and/or the black market.
Always try weapons of Gondolin or blessed weapons with hidden ability. (ESP/telepathy needs of course no identification, you will usually notice it by wearing the item).
There are also some artifact weapons with esp.

[Wraitheist]

Good to know, thanks!

[aeneas]

I would want to get my CON up and have at least 600hp before diving below 2200 or so. Watch out for AMHD, and Drolems (non-evil, not detected by ESP) once you get below 2400.

This might be a controversial piece of advice, but I'd say that if you are going to wait to get 600 HP before passing 2200' you should wait for 600hp, or close to it, before passing 1600'. It will take a long time in either case, but you are much less likely to die from boredom at 1600', even if you are more bored. The game changes qualitatively right after that. If I'm much deeper than 1600' with 200 some-odd hp, I want to get as deep as I can, to minimize the amount of time my hp are that low. This obviously depends a bit on race/class.

[Wraitheist]

An update on my progress:

I maxed my stats, have a permanent speed of +6, and have resists to almost everything. I decided to just start diving. I'm at '3600 and taking every > I see. My main problem now is basically not knowing which monsters and uniques are somewhat safe to fight and which ones should be avoided, since I'm seeing monsters that I've never seen before.

*edit*
One more question: With some equipment shuffling, I can get ESP if I give up 3 speed...is it worth it? As a priest, I'm casting detect constantly anyway, but ESP sure would be nice. Not sure if it is worth losing speed for, though.

[Zikke]

I personally believe it's very worth it to give up +3 speed for ESP. Once you have ESP and get used to using it, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

[aeneas]

Yeah, ESP is generally better than +3 speed. The only time you might have to think about this is when the speed would take you past a breakpoint- basically if you're at +10-+15 or +20-+25 with the speed. The reason for this is that at +10/+20 uniques at that speed can no longer get double moves on you, and at +12/+22 the same thing becomes true of non-uniques. I would still generally prefer ESP though.

EDIT: Umm, that should be +10-+24 and +20-+24.

[Wraitheist]

Thanks for the advice. I'm actually about about '4000 now and still diving. I am at +19 speed with ESP. I killed some type of Wyrm and it dropped a unique ring AND a unique amulet. Do these things always have such great drops? It wasn't even a unique. I also nearly died while trying to clear a vault. Some type of Wyrm breathed disenchantment (one of two resists I'm lacking) and took me from 600+ hp to 130 or so. It was surround by several other nasty monsters, so my 0% fail TO spell seemed risky since I couldn't get them all. I decided my best bet was my staff of *destruction*. Luckily, it didn't fail. I guess I'd be better off trading my staff for scrolls, eh?

One more question: What is the best way to deal with summoners? There are some Uniques that I've been avoiding for 20 levels because they summon every other turn.

[Pete Mack]

getting good drops from nonuniques is why diving is so important. Though two artifacts for one kill is rare. As forassive summons, if you have good melée, you can use an antisummoning corridor. If not, try to stay in corridors whet you can teleport the summons all at once, or where you can dodge around a corner an deal with them one at a time. Runes of protection can help, especially with hockey stick corridors. and if there are a lot of weak summons just ignore them. The space they take up can't be used for more dangerous ones.