First Win: Krond VI the very lucky Half-Orc Warrior

[Nomad]

First win! Started playing back in March with 3.0.9b, upgraded to 3.1.2v2 in August, and finally got a winner playing one of the November nightlies. I have to admit I was aided by playing a version where the randart drops were still ridiculously frequent, but the main decider was the fact that Grishnakh the Hill Orc dropped this beauty of a weapon on dlevel 11:

a) The Spear of Imbanwe (2d6) (+27,+14) [+8] (+4)
     +4 dexterity.
     Slays animals, orcs, giants.
     *Slays* dragons, demons, undead.
     Branded with acid, flames, frost.
     Provides resistance to acid, fear, dark.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
     Sustains wisdom, dexterity.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things.  
     
     When activated, it deals five times your level's damage to all evi
     l creatures that you can see.

It was one of only three weapons I used for the rest of the game: I got a Lochaber Axe with slay evil at dlevel 61 which I saved for the Morgoth battle, and towards the end carried a whip with slightly lesser damage to have lightning immunity.

Had some other great luck in that first dungeon trip, in the shape of very early sources of free action and poison resistance. (Although on the flip side I also managed to put on enough cursed rings and amulets to render myself completely incapable of searching, which I didn't even know you could do.) With that gear I was basically able to melee my way through every unique, vault and pit I encountered. Got a +11 speed ring from a vault on dlevel 40-something when I already had +10 speed boots, and it was pretty much a guaranteed win from there.

Morgoth fight was quite anticlimactic in the end. I already had a natural speed of +30, and I hasted to +40 with a rod of speed before the fight just in case. Didn't have a good enough bow to do real damage even with ammo of Holy Might, so I just used melee all the way.

I'd already mopped up most of the uniques, so he only summoned Quaker and Vecna. I basically ignored the summons completely: I had ten rods of TO, but the only thing I bothered to teleport away during the battle was a nightwing. Morgoth's own shatter attack took care of the terrain and kept me free from getting surrounded by anything particularly nasty. Didn't have to banish or destruct at all, and didn't really have to run, though I used phase door twice to move away and recover from stunning, just out of sheer paranoia.

I went in with a big stack of healing potions and just swigged a !Healing every time my HP dropped below 800, and a !*Healing* after every mana storm, which he didn't do that often. Used up 6 of each type, and that was all it needed. (I'm still carrying 7 potions of life that were completely unnecessary.) My only other tactic was that I was very careful to always use the Escape key to clear -more- messages instead of risking making an accidental move.

Now hunting Vecna round the level to complete my uniques' gallery (he's actually proving more of a pain than Morgoth, summoning-wise) and then I'll go back to collect the crown and hammer. Here's the dump:

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=10861

I guess my next goal is to try and win in a version without the crazy randart drops, or possibly have a go at a standart winner. (I got bored quickly playing standarts when I wasn't very good, because I would only find the same early items over and over. Hopefully it should be more interesting now I'm better at surviving longer.)

And I may try a rogue or a ranger next. I find spell-casters much harder to keep alive thanks to my stubborn tendency to try and melee things I really shouldn't.

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by Nomad

First win!

Congrats.

Originally Posted by Nomad

I'd already mopped up most of the uniques, so he only summoned Quaker and Vecna. I basically ignored the summons completely: I had ten rods of TO, but the only thing I bothered to teleport away during the battle was a nightwing.

What did you do to Vecna if you didn't TO him? Fighting M and Vecna at the same time is suicidal.

[Nomad]

Originally Posted by Timo Pietilä

What did you do to Vecna if you didn't TO him? Fighting M and Vecna at the same time is suicidal.

By sheer luck he never got close. Morgoth summoned some other weaker undead and then a load of trolls, and what with that and him constantly shattering the landscape when he hit me, Vecna was pushed to the back of the pack and we never got line of sight on each other.

Morgoth's shatter attack actually makes him easier to tackle in melee than other summoners. When I was going after Vecna afterwards I had to banish or flee several times, but Morgoth was constantly smashing things up so most of the time I never had more than him and one or two weaker monsters on me at once.