(V) Pike's Journey
 

Had a successful run with a Dunadan Warrior yesterday, made it down to Dungeon level 49 before it got deaded by a Cyclops. Not too bad for a days gaming IMO.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=8817

I've had a few quick dives this morning and the best I've managed so far is this one:

Found that I had two escape mechanisms away from Brodda that hadn't been i.d.'d yet. Oh well, will try and alleviate that for the next dive. I'm aiming for 1000' on the first trip.

Will keep you posted.

Cheers,

GT

Righto, managed to get down to 700' before I ran out of phase scrolls to keep me out of orc trouble, read WoR and managed to make it back to town with a few hp left. Turns out I'd managed to pick up 'Cambeleg' from one of the hill orcs I was trying to dodge.

So that's two trips I have managed to make it down to 700' on an initial dive. Last time I made it to 1200' with the second trip down, will see how I go this time.

I'm finding it's a matter of ignoring the radiation eyes, red jellies and others which suck the stats dry. See Invis is important, as Poltergeists drain my stats to, hence the current Dex situation. _DetInv comes in handy though, now...

Made it to 1850' on the second dive. Picked up the Phial and the Rapier (Defender) which came in handy. Bailed back to town as I'd run out of all Cure ! I had. Also my _ID had been toasted, so I had plenty of {excellent} stuff needing ID. Lucked out and scored some Robes of Permanence, combined with the Boots of Stability picked up in the store.

Doing OK, but I know I'm now at a depth that it's time to sneak around or I'm going to be toasted by an off screen d.

Well that was fun while it lasted.

Done in by what I will guess from the last messages is some out of sight Air Hounds. Pity, I'd just picked up some boots of Speed +8 :(

Cracked out the latest nightly build.

Noticed one or two changes straight up. Will try and keep up to date witht hem just for the sake of it. Didn't last too long though.

That's a very sweet kit for your level. It's a pity he bit the dust.

That final game you probably would have survived with a little more damage. With just a whip (+0), I'd recall a little early and hope to find better weapons and some enchantment scrolls.

I've noticed with the latest nightly that you can i.d. the plusses on the weapons/armour by wielding/wearing them. So I should be able to alleviate the lack of +'s on weapons pretty easy.

I have noticed that the starting store equipment is very sucky, struggle to find either a whip or my preferred rapier at the 3 store.

This is what I managed so far today, before ?Phase away from kobolds into the room full of kobolds :(

I really need to work on my brain and the stupid decisions I make. Best effort so far in the current nightly.

Mushroom of vigor came in handy after I'd been stat drained on Wis, Dex and Cha.

Cracked out another cl14 that made it down to dl16, just 3 experience pts short of the one I posted earlier.

Confused Grishnak with a Snaga, I need to clean my screen ;)

Slowly gaining a better idea on how to dive. Made it to 800' on the first dive, my best so far, before I had to pull out the ?WoR to get me out of trouble, damn priest summoned Shagrat and co, and me with no healing potions.

Made it down to 1050' as a cl17. But found that I just didn't pack enough punch to take on anything I happened across. Combo of Air Hounds, Ochre Jelly and Uruks did me in.

At 1000' it's a good idea to have an escape. That usually means a Staff of Teleportation; the black market also frequently carries several types of scrolls that work as well. (Teleport, Teleport Level, Deep Descent.)

Just picked up Wormtongue's boots. Never seen them before, not sure if the penalty to hit and to dam would be worthwhile just for the other bonuses.

Then again it doesn't matter as I got smashed again - didn't dive anywhere near as fast this time around. But I did survive a lot longer.

Living longer doesn't matter nearly so much as living deeper. You lost two characters at dl 21. This suggests that there's something about the zone after 1000' that you need to account for. Looking at the last messages, your trouble is that you aren't using your escape often enough. 23 dam/turn is not enough for a warrior to fight through a bunch of earth hounds. Your damage is not very good for a Warrior. You can expect to be getting around 50 dam/turn (12.5 dam/blow, 4 blows) for an optimized dunadan warrior with a reasonably enchanted dagger.

Thanks Pete, I'll use tiredness as an excuse for not wielding a lighter weapon, IIRC I'd sold my main gauche of +abit +abitmore on the last trip back up.

BTW any comment on the Wormtongue boots? A Yay or Nay item?

No good for a warrior, unless you are planning to use archery for everything.

Slowly but surely I'm getting there, note the Dagger Pete ;) Still having brain fades though, should have used the teleport staff to get me away from whatever was hitting me, turns out it was a Black knight. :?

Why is it the temptation of a vault makes us do silly things like try and take on an Archon and Gravity Hounds for the first time.

That's an impressive character. Surviving to dl 59 at cl 29 is impressive, especially for a warrior. (It's a bit easier for a Rogue, who has good stealth and detection, and adequate HP.) Though that rod of detection was a very nice find.

Ahh, i can still remember it like it was yesterday. Risking life and limb to crack a vault that I have no business even standing outside of.

Oh, wait. That was yesterday. I guess some people just never learn.

I have struggled like all hel to get anything to survive into the cl20's this past week.

Managed to get one there tonight. I reckon a hat that gives some See Invis and gloves or boots of FA would allow me to take the Flame weapon sitting in the home.

Here's how the current Pike is set up to take on the world:

Sell the Quarterstaff--it's almost identical to the other defender, with worse dice. You probably won't be using either one. Carry the main gauche as a swap weapon. You are struggling largely because you can't do damage.

The dice are close and IIRC quarterstaves are lighter than lucerne hammers. Contingent on the accuracy of that recollection the quarterstaff would get a third blow sooner as stats increase making it more attractive.

Righto, got the See Invis and FA covered now.

Trying to work out exactly what Telepathy from Thranduil gives me, because I'd love to drop the RoSeeInvis and get the RoDam+9 back on. And if I can get another source of FA then the other RoD goes on as well. I know that Telepathy only grants the ability to see what's in a small radius around you, but what does it detect? Does it only Detect Evil? What about non-Evil i.e. some animals/jellies? Is there any invisible stuff it wouldn't detect?

Just picked up the RoPerm, replacing the Dwarven +2 armour.

Telepathy actually covers quite a reasonable radius. It picks up anything with a 'normal mind'. Therefore you will detect most animals, but will not detect jellies. Similarly you will detect most undead (ghosts and the like), but you will not pick up Qs.

That's the downside to Dunadan. With SI and decent infravision, you can get by without SI for quite a while--until you start getting the really bad 'Q's

Oh well, nice to know Vampire Lords can cast Nether Bolts, that'll be handy in my monster memory for the next time.

I know how you feel. From one of my character dumps:

Got to love phasing away from Earth hounds, right into the middle of the pack of Earth hounds :(

FWIW I'm finding it somewhat hader to find a decent weapon witht he changes the nightlies have had in regards to TMJ. But I am loving the extra ability to ID the weapons on wielding that I do find early on.

First time I've ever found the Quarterstaff of Eriril, free identify was handy to have for the short period of time before the fire bolt did me in. Averaged about 4K turns per dl, trying to drop taht down, but I think I spent too long on 650' before finding Eriril.

Bugger me if another fire bolt didn't do me in.

Wahey!!! A whole nights running around dungeons without suffering the YASD curse I've had all week.

Speaking of curses, an un-id ?, turned out to be curse weapon - DOH!!! It's taken a fair few trips back to town to get ?rem cur, which didn't work, then more trips back to town for ?Ench Dam and ?Ench Hit which were rare as hens teeth, now I have to make more trips to get another ?rem cur to see if it will now work on the "finally" +hit/+dam weapon. There's a couple of interesting special weapons at home which would come in real handy at my current depth, which would lead to a change in ring selection as well.

Oh, and for the observant the many -ve values on my armour is thanks to Phase Spiders, who phased me into a jelly pit - bastards!!!

Why not use Nimloth or Nimthanc?

I'll point you back to the second paragraph of my post for that answer Pete, here's a tip, I need a ?rem curse. ;)

Try some ordinary enchant scrolls if rCurse is not for sale but they are.

Doesn't work Eddie.

That's two times I've been caught out by ?rem curse not getting rid of curses on items that have had the negative values converted to positive values. AFAIC it's a flaw in the game. I do notice that in this latest dump it mentions both cursed and heavily cursed under the item description in my inventory, but the dump from last night only mentions cursed. Something is definately screwy there IMO.

FWIW I even gave a _rem curse a crack and it failed as well.

Doesn't matter though as I have suffered a YASD. This time a death quasit smacked me around and a teleportation dropped me next to a Cyclops who cleaned me up.

Very odd. Probably a bug. I didn't think think that 'normal' weapons could even carry a heavy curse, unless something has changed recently.

I swear my wife has something going on with RNG. Everytime she distracts me from the game to have a conversation, or even just talk at me, I end up killed.

I was f'n stoked with this character too, made it to 1050' on my first dive, had Eorlingas, was rocking around a superb felling level which I'd !enlightened and found a diagonal vault. Went and chased down new items I hadn't Id'd yet, found Holhenneth and some !CCW so went and had a crack at the vault. Had a -TelOth and a straight corridor, zapping away shit I didn't need to fight so I could access the vault without getting in harms way, then my wife talks at me and instead of quaffing a !CCW I use a _Teleport and fail and the friggen Stone Giant does me in.

I swear, about 90% of my deaths are due to my wife.

I frequently die because of impaired judgment of some kind: exhaustion, drunkenness, distraction etc. It's gotten to the point where I'm afraid to play if I'm tired or had a beer or my wife is even *home.*

Have you guys been married long? I've only been married three years, and I've learned to tune out my wife completely whilst preserving the illusion of listening - well, almost ...

Yeah, been married for much longer than that.

Tuning out's not the problem, it's when you actually pay attention (after the initial blocking out the noise phase) that you forget what your doing and hit the wrong keys.

Golden rules:

1. Angband can wait.
2. Attending to both at once leads to trouble in both.
3. When in doubt, refer to Rule 1.

Then again deaths just occur because you don't have enough get of jail cards like this effort tonight.

Fire hounds burned all my ?WoR and I was trudging my way back up from 1100', with no ?id, and I'd just tried on a new " which turned out to be cursed Infra, so my "SlowDigest was wasted, and running into orc hordes with no backwards paths except that which leads to a hydra, and only one remaining ?phase. Spewing really, as I'd scored two Resistance items which I hadn't Id'd.

Oh well, shit happens.

What's a source of protection from Sound/Stunning?

Was having a quick little run this morning and got smashed up by Vibration Hounds. Wasn't too impressed by my inability to remember to heal myself either. :(

Narthanc was a nice find, with the ability, at the time of finding it, of cracking out about 90+ in damage per round.

Fighting a pack of hounds should always be considered optional. I'll do it if I have the proper resist (making it non-inventory/non-life threatening) and I need the XP. A good example is that I'll occasionally fight gravity hounds if I find myself in a good location with good equipment to do so, because they can be worth a lot of XP depending on your CL.

Fighting two packs at the same time is probably never worth it. If you are powerful enough to do so effectively, then the XP gained is going to be lousy and the certainly aren't going to be any drops.

You typically get that resistance from Rohirrim, Isildur, or Thorin. There are some other sources, but those are the likely ones.

You arent likely to see a good source of RSound until fairly deep. The usual sources are Isildur or Rohirrim, or occasionally the random resist on ego armor or shield. The only ego item that grants it is a Crown of Serenity, which is much rarer than an artifact source.

buzzkill: I got back door bettied by the Vibration Hound while slapping the Fire Hounds around, i.e. I wasn't backed into a corridor I could be got from any direction in the case of the Vib Hounds, it was from behind. My brain fade stopped me from using any of the applicable escape routes I had open to me.

It's all a learning experience.

Like my latest one. Just because RNG gives you a superb feeling at 400' doesn't mean it's a jelly pit. I walked straight into a small diagonal vault today, killed everything inside, only issue was Smeagol who I couldn't see, but managed to corner and smash anyway. Might just be worthwhile investigating superb feeling levels at that depth in the future just in case it's another vault.

And thanks for the Res Sound info Eddie/Pete.

OMG! Pike's still alive! ;)

Amazing the difference Telepathy can make. Found the Blessed main gauche early on and it's been invaluable, combined with the -detDoors/Stairs I've managed to get down quicker than normal. Beaked Axe of Hurin is swapped in when actually in combat, but zooming down the levels the gauche is the main item.

Just picked up Permanence which came with rPoi, so that's handy. Looks like I have everything I need to keep on diving. Swapped in the Agility gloves over Paurnen, as it gives me an extra swing with Hurin.

I just got caught out by a Knight Templar @2050 who smacked me around, and meant I couldn't get into a small diagonal vault for the goodies. My escaping tricks were all wiped out trying to deal him enough damage but keeping alive to raid the vault. And the vault was tasty too, had one !Str plus four others not id'd yet. plenty of un'id'd rods too. Oh well, maybe next time.

Nothings available back in town apart from _Tel and ?Phase. Haven't seen -TelOth yet in the game.

Something I just noticed regarding Hurin. Does the Berserker rage act the same as the !Berserk? I.e. will my AC drop when it's activated?

Cheers,

GT

Something froze my balls (*EDIT* seems it was an AMHD) just after I'd gone toe to toe with the Vampire Lord. Not enough hp to survive the breath so I was toasted.

Pretty happy how I went this time around though. Again, the Telepathy and rPoison coming early was nice. Surprisingly I did not find any cloaks this game.

Wow - Time Hounds really *&%^ you up.

Also finding that from about 2200' and downwards Hold Life would be handy, lost count of the number of levels I would be if I had not had to gain exp back from life drainers.

Yeah, 'time' is very nasty. You probably don't realize just how nasty, yet...

It's been a while between drinks as they say.

Currently really low on Int and Wis due to stat drainers on my last trip down, and lucky me found no potions of restore when I got back up :(

Found Bard on my last trip down for the first time that I can recall in all my years of playing, so that was a nice experience.

Current weapon choice isn't easy, tossing up between the current confusion resistance vs see invisible vs telepathy. Really hoping for a decent helm to turn up soon that'll alleviate that problem.

Telepathy is an OK replacement for SI, but Theoden is a bad weapon for you. You should be wielding Maedhros or Careth Asdriag instead of Totila (in fact, this is the first time I can recall that I've ever seen anyone using Totila), because the extra damage (and in Maedhros's case, the extra speed) is worth more than resist confusion. Ditch the Strength ring in favor of a Ring of See Invisible and equip Maedhros, I'd say.

Actually, Totila does more damage than you think 75*5 = 475 vs fire-vulnerable creatures is respectable for where he is. 45*7 = 315 for careth asdraig doesn't come close, especially when you will lose rConf. I would carry Theoden and Totila as swaps for this character, and use theoden for walking around, Totila vs non-dragons and confusion resistance.

Huh? I'm hardly an expert player, but I must say that there's not a lot I've ever found to be more valuable than rConf. In my experience confused generally = dead.

Pete: fair point. I keep forgetting that Totila actually gets decent brand damage.

As for resist confusion: don't get me wrong, it's quite handy. However, anyone past 500' or so should be carrying as many Cure Critical Wounds potions as they can get their grubby little mitts on, so as long as you aren't trying to fight a monster with melee confusion attacks, you should be able to shake off any confusion without too much trouble. I'd much rather have good damage and resist confusion, but at the depth he's at, I'd rather take the latter over the former. Far better to kill all enemies quickly, than to protect yourself against one somewhat uncommon attack at the cost of being unable to kill all enemies as quickly. The more time you spend in combat, the more likely you are to make a mistake or be unlucky.

Resistance to confusion turns Gold and Bronze dragons of any age from threats to treats.

In my experience, when I'm lucky enough to have res_conf before stat gain, I go through stat gain significantly faster than otherwise.

Well, by the time I knocked off last night I'd managed to collect a few more resistances, and covered my See Invis hole with a ring. Scored a diamond vault with permanent walls within an even bigger square space, never seen one of those before, was an interesting experience. Unfortunately I couldn't avoid killing Bert or the Queen Ant and save them for later without missing out on clearing the vault.

Now I'm struggling to work out what combo of weapons and armour will suffice, as I've managed to get stuff to cover Poison, Nexus, Nether and Disenchant, but would have to walk around with a wardrobe and a golf bag to carry it all.

It's a Sounds vs Shards conundrum in regards to the armour. But the weapon choice is even harder.

Unresisted sound breath is almost certain to stun you, which makes you worse at fighting. I also think there's a real risk of getting knocked out (resulting in you helplessly getting killed) if you happen to face a pack of hounds outside of an ambush corridor. Ancient Gold Dragons can probably stun you badly or knock you out too, if you're not careful and I think sound resistance helps against almost all kinds of stunning distance attacks. I don't really remember which attacks that can stun, but I think it is force, impact, inertia, water bolts/balls and gravity. I don't really know how easy it is to get knocked out, as I personally avoid all monsters that could have stunning attacks if I don't have sound resistance. Sound resistance is a sound choice, but remember that it won't protect you from stunning in melee (Master Mystics & Grand Master Mystics are known for killing even well-equipped high level level characters by knocking them out).

Shards aren't that dangerous, it can do quite a lot of hitpoint damage and cause bleeding, but if you just make sure to not face lots of Earth Hounds in open areas and leave Crystal Drakes alone until you're strong enough, you'll do fine without restisting shards. Shard breath isn't known to kill otherwise healthy characters.

Got Sound covered now.