Loaded for Bear

[sffp]

So I am playing a Half-Elven Ranger who feels like he is just about ready for the bigs.

I'd love to get the con up a few more points for more HP and I'd like better (more?) arrows and some banishment (Celeborn could give me that).

I'm not sure what resists I really need for the last fights. The one time I got there, Sauron summoned Gothmog who breathed fire and killed me (At least I know that exact scenario won't happen again Wiruin has killed my other two deep elite characters. Once I got lazy because I had telepathy. The other time, I was greedy in a vault and just should have walked away.

I'd welcome any advice on armor/weapon choice and whether I'm ready for the big show

Serenity vs Iron Crown of Might is my big tussle (sound, rConf, RStun vs +3 Con and sustain Str, Dex, Con)

[Sphara]

Crown of Might is most definitely better than Serenity as long as you're going to do ranger things and shoot with Belthrondig. Pack up all the Constitution, you're not going to melee either Sauron or Morgoth. Resistance to stunning and confusion are not top priority as long as you're shooting.

One thing about endgame fights:
I do not know if you are familiar with hockey-stick targeting. It is essential for a ranger if you want easier fight. If Morgoth can see you most of the time during the fight, we have a problem. You have not prepared for his summons. As many Banishment and Mass Banishment scrolls you can gather, should be saved for Morgoth fight. Sauron summons too but he's not as crazy with his summons as Morgy. Unique summons are something you can only deal with Teleport Other or Destruction.

[sffp]

thanks Sphara

I have found exactly one scroll of banishment and one scroll of mass banishment the entire game. The former I used against time hounds (I hate time hounds), the latter I used when I identified it. I don't even know exactly what it does.
I've also yet to see an arrow of holy might. (at least two sets of bolts, but no arrows!)

At this point, I've dusted Sauron, who was surprisingly weak - Turned into a Vampire and managed one spear of ice which stunned me briefly, gave me a cut, but did no damage because of Nenya (the cut managed 3 hp) My monster history only shows him as only having 8000 hp just like Gothmog.

Now it will be time to go down, WOR up, grab my 2 potions of *Healing* I left behind and then WOR down and take my crack at Melkor.

[sffp]

My first brush with Morgoth ended with me Destructing him (I didn't think he was touchable), and I waited around for him to come back but he never did. <<single tear>>

Now I have to scrounge around for some more healing and banishment scrolls and more better arrows.

For damage purposes, is Morgoth considered a giant? I mean he is a capital P

Also, the way time/turn/arrows fire with Morgoth at 140 speed and my @ at 149 is a tad confusing.

I should be getting 3.6 shots a turn. But a fair number of times, I back up a square, P doesn't move, I take one shot and P moves towards me.

[Sky]

Morgoth is Evil (i think at some point during Angband 2.X he was a Giant).

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Morgoth is Evil (i think at some point during Angband 2.X he was a Giant).

Yeah, he's used to be described as a Giant, and still uses the ASCII symbol for Giant "P", but never was subject to *Slay Giant*.

[Sky]

a few considerations;

Gothmog is reasonably easy to kill, and it's one unique which you shouldn't leave alive for the end fights. He's a demon, which means there will be many weapons which do over 700 dmg (or more) to him. Immunity to fire is good, and a scroll of Banishment to send away the "U" he summons is also a good idea.

regardless, when you fight sauron (or other summoners), if they summon another major unique, your first task is to teleport them away. the really dangerous stuff is Vecna, Ulmo, Ariel, the Tarrasque, Kronos, all the strong breathers / those who cast Mana Storm / Dragon and Undead summoners.


Also .. using very rough calculations, your ranger has 3 shots base. with beltrondig you shoot 4 shots at 3x.
With a longbow of lothlorien you can do 3 shots at 5x, does more damage and uses less ammo.

Like i said, i'm not a fan of the standart artifact set, as you got too many holes in your defenses; a single chaos breath can kill you, you dont have pConf, Ulmo is a strong Nether breather, and so on.

For Morgoth, the Glaive of Pain is your highest damage.

[sffp]

Thank you all

For a while I had all of the resists covered except for rChaos (and ESP

But I didn't have enough hitpoints. I swapped armor trading resists for Con/sustain stat. Now I lack rSound rShard, rNether, rChaos and pConf and pStun - but I sustain all and have almost 1000 HP.

At this point in time, we have 15 CCW, 6 Heal, 8 *Heal*, 2 Life, 1 Banish, 5 Mass Banish, 3 *Destruction*, armor that activates for Banish and 2 staves of *Destruction* (which will probably get used once at the start and then converted to arrows

I hadn't thought about finding a better bow. But you're probably right. This @ has yet to find a Lothlorien bow. It has two rings of power now (Nenya and Vilya) but for speed reasons should probably only wield one. (probably Nenya for susWis)

I have a Mace of Disruption of *Slay Evil* (+12,+13) that does 522.5 vs Evil as my primary weapon, but the plan is to try and use arrows as much as possible


Oh and Gothmog who killed my last @ while trying to face Sauron, is quite dead now - thank you

[Monkey Face]

As far as unique summons go, a lot depends on how many are still out there. If you've killed most of the uniques, what you can do is teleport yourself when Morgoth summons them. Then Morgoth will chase you much faster than the other uniques and if he doesn't have any more uniques to summon, he can now only summon banishable monsters.

I haven't played 4.2.1 yet, but if memory serves, Morgoth has been switched from a P to an A symbolically which makes sense based on Tolkien lore.

[Ed_47569]

I haven't played 4.2.1 yet, but if memory serves, Morgoth has been switched from a P to an A symbolically which makes sense based on Tolkien lore.

Morgoth is still a P. Sauron and Saruman have been switched to A.

As of 4.2.1, Morgoth also clears much more stone around him leaving more room for summons.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

I haven't played 4.2.1 yet, but if memory serves, Morgoth has been switched from a P to an A symbolically which makes sense based on Tolkien lore.

No, Sauron was a fallen Ainur, so he is an A, as is Saruman; Morgoth is a fallen Valar, not an Ainur.

[Nick]

No, Sauron was a fallen Ainur, so he is an A, as is Saruman; Morgoth is a fallen Valar, not an Ainur.

Actually the Ainur consisted of the Valar and the Maiar. Sauron was a (particularly powerful) Maia, Morgoth was a Vala. So Morgoth could be an A as well - in Sil he's a V for Vala - but keeping him as P seemed valid because he was stuck in the form of a giant after putting most of his power into corrupting Middle-Earth. Clear?

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Actually the Ainur consisted of the Valar and the Maiar. Sauron was a (particularly powerful) Maia, Morgoth was a Vala. So Morgoth could be an A as well - in Sil he's a V for Vala - but keeping him as P seemed valid because he was stuck in the form of a giant after putting most of his power into corrupting Middle-Earth. Clear?

You are the Silmarillion master! Awesome, Nick!

[Sky]

You are the Silmarillion master! Awesome, Nick!

such in depth knowledge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iO5-ic0Ug4

[sffp]

Fingolfin has been avenged at last!
Noldorian's plan to turn a staff of *Destruction* or 2 into arrows right before the final fight paid off as he finally got his hand on some arrows (mithril) of Holy Might.

First @ of mine to win since Moria back in the early 90's...
I've killed the Balrog, but I'd never killed Sauron let alone Morgoth.

(is 4.2.1 ready for prime time?)