Next steps for level 42 warrior

[drquicksilver]

I would really appreciate some advice please - I don't think I've ever got this far as a warrior.

Everything at my current depth seems quite manageable. I was scared of a V nest with elder vampires in the middle but actually it was fine - the elders were a slight pain for ignoring my LoS blocking corridors but they were manageable and the xp and lot from the nest as a whole was fantastic (mostly stocking up on potions and rods). I just skipped a level with two vaults one containing Gothmog and Lungorthin (both awake but thankfully behind permanent walls) and one containing Saruman plus assorted out-of-depth annoyances. Uniques around my depth (Scatha, Balrog of Moria, even the Phoenix) seem to have been just fine with slow monster + stun + a potion of speed.

Am I carrying too many rods? The rods of detection and magic mapping overlap Holhenneth but Holhenneth has an annoying recharge time (and small mapping radius). I could swap Elendil for the Phial but then I'd need to carry rods of illumination. The rods of disable traps are for chests although I occasionally use them on dungeon traps.

I seem to have a bunch of artefact weapons all doing very similar kinds of damage output. Anduril does the most damage vs undead and evil, but Lotharang does more vs orcs, trolls, and 'other'. Avavir's damage is lower but still pretty good, and would give me +3 speed and 30 AC; but would give up RDisen which is on both Anduril and Lotharang. I think I can get rid of Nimloth now, I was keeping it in case I decided that +3 speed was worth it but Avavir is just better than Nimloth?

I think Carlammas is junk? I'm fine for CON and STR, but resist nether plus a renewable source of restore life makes Evenstar really handy (especially with the 4.2.1 exploit that it helps vs time stat drain as long as you lose a level!)

Having to spend a ring slot on poison resist is annoying. Himring is my other candidate source but the +2 dex from Rohirrim has been critical in keeping blows up (although funnily enough at my current Dex I don't think it matters) and currently Rohirrim is my only source of resist electricity. Rohirrim also gives quite substantially more AC than Himring.

Should I be collecting bolts to use with Umbar? Collecting decent ammo takes ages and I currently have medium quality arrows which are useful for killing occasional death molds and Qs and finishing off fleeing monsters, I don't think I particularly need to have a super-powerful missile weapon. I could see myself using Cubragol for the speed if that ever shows up.

I have read in other threads Sky's advice is stay around 2000' until you have everything you need to win the game but I get bored staying around there - also, since there are lots of monsters I don't know in this game beyond 1500' - some I don't remember well and many have changed since 2.8.x - I like discovering them 'gradually' as I go down. Also it's getting so easy that I never need to use tactics; hardly ever use phase door or teleport, hardly ever have to quaff anything. I don't carry Healing potions into the dungeon although I have two or three times quaffed one that I found down there to stay in a fight for longer.

I think all I'm really looking for is some more base speed and some source of ESP. Maybe a better source of temporary speed - twice I've had a staff of speed get destroyed. I think overconfidence is likely to get me killed, though!

[Grotug]

While you are in the game press 'C' then 'f' to create a "file dump" which will make a handy text file that has all the information about your character. You can then upload this to the ladder by clicking on the 'ladder' tab on the forum and 'submit your own dump'. Then you can share the link to your character in this thread and then people will be able to see all the details about your character and be able to make informed, helpful replies. Without seeing all the details of your character it will be difficult to give advice. Also, I can't remember the differences between the weapons without seeing them, but I totally sympathize with wearing Rohirrim over Himring; I pretty much never wear Himring as a warrior because the low AC makes me very uncomfortable.

[drquicksilver]

Oops. I did mean to upload it to the ladder, yes...

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=23720

[Estie]

Youre not carrying too many rods. Wands of slow are superfluous with rods of same carried, you can drop those. I wouldnt carry disarming either - yes, that means you might miss out on a vault while trying to disarm the trapdoor barring your way, but there are more important items to carry.

Of your weapons, only Anduril and Avavir should be kept. Lotharangs selling point is the str/dex and as it stands, even with maxed out blows it does less damage than the others, so it will fall behind even more later. Orc and troll damage is irrelevant at this point, you can handle all the o and T bosses fine without Lotharang if you havent killed them already.
You should wield Avavir, speed 6 -> 9 is big. Getting to speed 10 is better than almost everything else.

Carlammas is not junk. Even a half troll with maxed out con needs some extra to get to 18/200 and the amulet slot is low value, so depending on what exactly youll find it might be the best option.

Personally I (almost) ignore AC, but thats a matter of playstyle. The more you pick your fights versus clearing levels, the less valuable AC becomes. I would not discard Himring; I rather have low AC and, say, a ring of damage than high ac and the poison resistance ring. I wouldnt want to lose electricity resistance though, so atm Rohirrim is the way to go.

You should always collect good bolts as long as you have space in your home, Umbar or no. Branded ammo and a good launcher are a prime method for getting rid of dangerous uniques and if/when a good launcher shows up, its great to have the right type of ammo waiting.

That said, Umbar aggravates, so at this stage the only option would be to carry it plus its bolts as swap. You probably dont have space for that. If you plan on staying shallow where you can handle evrything at level the aggravation doesnt matter much, but then you dont really need the ranged damage either because you can melee evrything just fine.

Eventually you will have to go down. It will be increasingly annoying with your low stealth. Your choice is to either keep grinding here till you find ESP, which is likely going to take long, or start descending to where ESP is more common. Once you have it, life becomes easier.

[Sky]

i would ditch curing, disable traps and light.
You're ready to be much lower than DL54.

[Estie]

i would ditch curing, disable traps and light.
You're ready to be much lower than DL54.

Curing yes, I missed that, but not light. Pre-ESP lighting up hallways is extremely useful before resting, youll wake up when that Osyluth turns the corner and not when it enters your light radius.

I guess with maxed con youll survive the breath, but its a good habit to develop if you ever plan on surviving on dlvl 98 with 200 HPs.

[Sky]

except that he has 948hp, otherwise same thing.

[drquicksilver]

Thanks for all the help!

I'm using Avavir now. Of course on my first trip back to the dungeon Saruman shows up an disenchants Thorin so I'm lugging around Anduril as a swap weapon until he at least is dead.

I've followed your advice and streamlined my inventory a bit, more room to collect consumables now. I was carrying the Rods of Curing around just because at one point !CCW were running low and I was using them up curing heavy cuts and poison; that doesn't seem to be an issue any more.

Baphomet was a really tough fight - teleported him away twice before meeting him in an arena where his force breath didn't push me away, and still needed two potions of Healing to barely kill him. It was worth it though- Thengel, Arvedui and Stormwalker. Stormwalker was an easy swap for my +6 Boots of Speed and I'm wearing Arvedui now for the convenience of having Shards resist. It would be possible to use Himring and free up the ring slot but - I don't have a good ring at the moment anyway.

Shelob dropped a Halberd of Gondolin with ESP which could have been an interesting choice but then shortly afterwards Saruman dropped Thranduil so the ESP problem is solved but I might go back to Rohirrim for pConf. I think I don't need to lug around Anduril as a swap any more because after Saruman I don't need to melee anything which hits to disenchant for quite a long time?

I found Firestar on the floor and keeping it at home because it's hard to part with an immunity but it doesn't have that much else going for it right now.

[Estie]

Many things can disenchant, the most annoying probably being storms of unmagic (v). While technically disenchantment is a luxury resist, its very high on the list of luxuries you want to have. I´d pick it over pconf.

The weapon slot is not worth sacrificing for fire immunity unless you are a caster who doesnt rely on melee damage. Fighting big fire breathers like the U uniques is better done with a superior weapon and a potion of resist heat.

[drquicksilver]

Made it to level 50:

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=23720

As soon as I stopped taking Anduril into the dungeon I discovered yet more things which hit to disenchant (some major undead, bone golems) but I was lucky not to get too badly burnt. Swapped out Thranduil for Dor-Lomin and I have an embarrassing collection of different body armour in my home and I can't decide which to use! I wanted to use Soulkeeper which I don't think I've seen before but also want Celeborn's activation.

Once I got some other sources of speed, the Trident of Wrath seems by far the best weapon I have available. I'm still using a ring for poison resistance and I have this feeling I just need one clever piece of equipment to unlock a whole series of EQ swaps, let me put Elessar round my neck and switch around my armours.

I seem to be OK at 3700', had some tougher fights. Smaug, the big giant uniques and Uvatha went down easily enough; Ungoliant I tried but it seems to have so many HP and was going down much more slowly than mine. I only just replaced my staff of speed after losing the other two - hellhounds are really annoying.

What else do I need to head to L99?

[Estie]

You have Colluin, not only does it cover rPoison it also activates for double resist all elements which is free ticket for unique hunting. Its inconceivable that you shouldnt have found any useful rings by now, a good ring of mouse, dex, damage, slaying, anything. Keep the next one you get.

You can get rid of all your melee weapons, nothing is as good as Wrath.

For body armor id wear Celeborn, for the activation, even if the dex loss means a slight decrease in damage. Speaking of dex, half troll warriors have low base dex so an extra source is welcome; possibilities include a Lorien bow, amulet of trickery, ring of power.

Your on dlvl 74 now, thats virtually as dangerous as 98, but the loot still gets better.

One caveat: in randart games, there is a weird rule in place that prevents artifact light sources from dropping below a certain level, usually ~ 50 - 60. I dont know if that is also the case for the standarts, if so, you have missed out.

[Grotug]

Very nice advice you've received so far in this thread, but even as an experienced player I cannot abide by DL98 being similarly dangerous to DL74. Yes, 74 can have any of the dangerous things on 98, but the frequency of many of the more problematic ones are much less at DL74 than 98 such as *GREATER* Undead pits and passwall Demons en mass. So, if you are going to crash dive to DL98, please know it is a lot more dangerous (especially if you have low stealth) and you need to be much more careful. The Terrasque does not show up on DL74 very often, for instance. I mean, he's not going to be roaming the hallways at that depth like he will be at DL98.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Very nice advice you've received so far in this thread, but even as an experienced player I cannot abide by DL98 being similarly dangerous to DL74. Yes, 74 can have any of the dangerous things on 98, but the frequency of many of the more problematic ones are much less at DL74 than 98 such as *GREATER* Undead pits and passwall Demons en mass. So, if you are going to crash dive to DL98, please know it is a lot more dangerous (especially if you have low stealth) and you need to be much more careful. The Terrasque does not show up on DL74 very often, for instance. I mean, he's not going to be roaming the hallways at that depth like he will be at DL98.

I have to say, I'm in the 74 is about as dangerous as 98 camp. Yeah, you're right, the frequency is increased, but the risk-reward tradeoff highly favors dropping to 98 as quickly as may be. Hell, from about level DL50 on, I'm just hoping to collect enough Deep Descent to drop straight to DL98.

[drquicksilver]

Thanks all for all the advice.

I dived fairly slowly after the above character sheet; I followed advice to use Colluin, put a ring of dexterity on for a while to make sure I had maximum attacks per round, but ended up swapping it for a ring of speed when another dropped. I have upgraded my rings twice now, at 4850', Harowen dropped a (+10) and not too long after Cantoras dropped a (+13). I've found lots of other sources of dexterity including (+5) from Dal-i-thalion and (+5) from a Lothlorien bow, and an amulet of trickery I'm not wearing yet but might. I know (+30) speed is more than I need but I have flexibility now if a ring of power ever shows up. Many of the uniques seemed fairly easy, most of the big Ws are down and some of the big As. Carcaroth and Huan were the most difficult fights I won. Tarrasque and Measse I have given up on twice, and Wiruin always seems to show up at a bad moment.

I managed to clear at 4850' one of those big rectangular vaults with big wide open corridors but I'm not sure I'd bother again. It was very slow and painful going when monsters have LoS on you over the heads of annoying ants and can't be lured out. I used quite a few charges of Banishment and teleported away all the hard uniques. There were no amazing items in there but good stacks of consumables - the best were the bows of Lothlorien. Rod of speed hasn't shown up yet... having two rods of healing is nice though; with those plus Elessar I manage to avoid using Healing potions most of the time. Lots more weapons have shown up but they all seem less good than the Trident of Wrath.

I decided to try Sauron and it went OK, used a couple of healing potions but won the fight! Had to send away Wiruin and Lungorthin towards the end of the fight. Sauron dropped nothing good :-(

I'm disappointed not to find a ring of power but I don't think I need to hang around for anything else? I have a good stack of healing potions and scrolls of Destruction, I have decent melee damage and +30 base speed. Maybe I should get rid of Vecna, Lungorthin, Wiruin and Measse first though. Do I have to kill the Tarrasque?

Updated : http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=23720

[Pete Mack]

You could kill Sauron immediately, with a swap to get nexus. (Your saving throw is terrible, so his odds of teleporting you off the level are very high.) It is a shame you don't have more sustains, but with that much !Life and ,Vigor, you shouldn't have a problem. Go for it! And consider Weaponmastery for M, since you will do a bit more damage.