New player. Am I doing it right?

[bio_hazard]

Originally Posted by Skebet

Wow thank you all for such insightful replies. In the hope that the discussion will be helpful for other new players, I'll offer an update and some follow-up questions.

So after posting three days ago I continued down one level at a time until reaching dlvl 40 at clvl 31. And there for the first time I started to see stuff that really scared me, like the unique king of water elementals (can't remember name). Luckily I had found Rods of Probing so I could see what to run/teleport/recall from.

Over the last few days I've run dlvl 40 about a half-dozen times trying to gear up and level up. And it has paid off, yielding Anduril (yay dps), Holhenneth (yay scanning), Hithlomir (yay stealth), a Rod of Restoration (convenient) and a Helm of Telepathy (which I now carry and switch out with Holhenneth regularly).

On my last dlvl 40 run I found my first real vault that I had to tunnel around into. And holy crap there's Radagast (normally found on dlvl 64, my Rod told me). Obviously I couldn't kill him but I learned something very powerful: When you cast phase door inside a vault, it automatically teleports you outside the vault!

Using that trick, telepathy and my staffs of teleport I was able to kite Radagast to the far end of the level and then teleport back toward the vault. Because I was off-screen Radagast never came back and I was able to (very slowly) clear the vault.

The final piece of loot from the vault (from a Marilith) was Boots of Speed +4. Great, except that equipping it means taking off my trusty Boots of Stability, which had been granting me nexus resistance. And as Tibarius pointed out, nexus resist is very important.

SO... my first tactical question at the moment is whether to equip the Speed boots or stability boots as my "main" or to simply make room to carry both so can switch to Stability as needed. That would be painful from an inventory standpoint but I'd understand the need.

An additional Ranger question: I have also found and equipped a Heavy Crossbow of Extra Shots, so I am now getting 2 shots/round with that. I take it Rangers only get extra shots with normal bows (not xbows)? Even so, it would seem that the double xbow damage makes it worth using over a longbow?

Thanks again all for such a helpful community. I'm loving this game! Stay tuned.

Speed is always good, while nexus is only good in a few situations. Nexus monsters are usually pretty easy to spot, especially with telepathy. Even though +4 is in the "good but not great" category, I'd still go with that as your everyday footwear.

You're getting to the point where teleportation gets more risky- landing in the middle a pack of exotic hounds is a good way to die.