Sil-Q: LOVE this game, but I'm clearly missing something... what is it?

[Joyous_Cow]

Cannot get enough of this game, I've put countless hours into it, and I keep coming back to it no matter how frustrated I get... but I have only ever gotten to the throne room once (died pretty quickly) and I just don't seem to know how to put a winning character together. What am I missing?

I have played around with a few different builds, but the only one that ever gets down below 800ft is a melee bruiser. The attached character dump is my most recent ill-fated elf.

I don't necessarily stand by every decision I made in this build, but it's a pretty typical example.
-I try to max melee and evasion, only invest in skills that give me a good payoff or solve an immediate problem.
-Protection is amazing early on, but eventually it stops making you invincible. What then? How do you continue to survive below 700ft? Run away more? Grind for resists?
-Seems like I have a similar problem with damage output. Even when I build a boring corridor figher, it seems like I run out of ways to increase my damage enough to keep up with the stronger and stronger monsters.

My one specific question would be - can I expect to be successful just freestyling a character's build in response to what I encounter and what equipment I find? Or is it truly necessary to go for a specific predetermined build, with very little room for spending XP outside of that build?

Again, love love love this game! Thank you to all the devs and the community.

[Thraalbee]

A brawler wants higher melee and evasion. Too many skils is difficult until you have 75k xp or so. Skipping songs is one way which also allows oath:silence which helps str. Maybe try the challenge option 50k xp a while. A build with few skills and maxed melee evade is winnable. Thing is, you can dive fast and learn more about the dangers quickly

[Pete Mack]

Also: use the ladder, to post your character, and to study other builds with similar EXP. You took way more non-melee abilities than most, and much less evasion in particular. Dont forget to use archery, especially since you get illumination of hallways

[HugoVirtuoso]

Also play on angband.live. You can get live feedback from spectators.

[Joyous_Cow]

Thanks for the advice! Helpful to hear that I really can/should commit to melee/ev. Will give it a shot and post results (on the ladder! or maybe live?!)

[Joyous_Cow]

Okay, I am about to descend to the throne room! Have almost 40 EV and melee, double resist for fire, cold, fear, free action, and poison, a good stock of potions, angriest, a good polearms and whirlwind attack... Am I missing anything?

[HugoVirtuoso]

You should post a character dump onto the ladder for us to take a better look

[Joyous_Cow]

Ah, okay. Here's the dump. (Brand new at this)
http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=24642

[MicroChasm]

I wish I had more advice about how to handle the throne room, but it is not something that I have done much with combat characters. I could discuss how I handle it with stealth characters if it's helpful.

The one time I was successful with a combat character, I walked up to Morgoth, used every buff I had, then hit him a couple of times. With the crown off I walked onto it, and then took 2-3 turns to pry the sil. After I got it, I used Exchange Places to get back to the stairs. My character was not as strong as the one posted on the ladder, so hopefully you will be successful as well.

It's spoilery, but I would be curious to see other methods for handling the throne room. Tyrael details a pretty interesting account of killing Morgoth as an Edain on his ladder character. I've seen other people say that they stay near the stairs and fight monsters until V shows up, so that they can escape quickly after prying the sil. I've seen Quickhatch's tutorial where he just picks up the dang crown and walks away with it, prying the sil on the floor above. Another option in the beta is to use a Horn of Force to knock off the crown, but I have not tried it myself.

[Joyous_Cow]

I'd love to hear about the stealth approach, actually! I am letting this melee bruiser sit for a bit so I can try the throne room with a friend and fellow SIL player that I'm visiting soon. So in the meantime I am working on a stealth singer.
Also open to general advice on how to play stealth characters. I thought I was doing okay with a stealth singer stabber, but I decided that's just spreading the XP too thin to really work. So.now.i'm trying a Sindar stealth singer. Not going for pacifist but almost functionally plays out like that... How do you make a stealth character work?