No comp?

[LordRotharoth]

Why hasn't there been a Competition for a few months, and when will the next one be?

[MITZE]

Originally Posted by LordRotharoth

Why hasn't there been a Competition for a few months, and when will the next one be?

Gwarl's the one in charge of the competitions at current, next one will be whenever he shows up next for people to yell at him about it.

[LordRotharoth]

Alright :/

[wobbly]

booh! Why no comp? Gwarl = terrible.

More seriously if you're keen you could probably give Gwarl a prod on his angband.live forum, he'll probably see it there quicker.

[Gwarl]

We have a competition

[Nick]

Grey-Elf Mage is quite a challenging combination. Some tips:

• You start with a nice weapon, note that it also activates to restore some mana (I completely forgot this in my first comp attempt)
• The wilderness near Menegroth is difficult; running away (including path-scumming) is a valid tactic
• South a bit, west a bit, north to reach the first dungeon, and there's a rough map in the help (?, 5, 5)

[Sphara]

@nick

Thanks for the tips. I should probably check the first dungeon then.
The beginning is.. eh.. hard. In my first game I got immediately mauled by a panther close to the Doriath entrance. Second attempt in progress.

[wobbly]

Anfauglith -------------------------Lothlann
    (Angband) \                              \
        |      \_____Dorthonion               \
    Fen of Serech  (Nan Dungortheb)            \
        |                   \                   |
Sirion Vale-----Gondolin  Dor Dinen             |
(Tol-in-Gaurhoth)           |    \              |         Hithaeglir--Gladden
          \                 |    Himlad         |             /       Fields
          Brethil        Doriath     \        Ered Luin   Khazad Dum
             \              |         East        \         /
          ___ Ephel      Menegroth   Beleriand     \    Hithaeglir
        /    Brandir             \       |          |     /
Talath /         \           Doriath     Thargelion |   Eriador
Dirnen       West Beleriand       |     *    \      |  /    \
(Nargothrond)     \                \   *       Belegost      \
              Amon Rudh      East Beleriand        |          Eriador
              (Amon Rudh)     *           \     Ered Luin      town
                    \        *             \        |            |
                West Beleriand              \       |            |
                     \                       \    Ossiriand      |
                   Andram                     \      |           |
                      \                        \     |           |
                    East Beleriand              Ossiriand        |
                        \                        /town           |
                      Taur-Im-Duinath   _Ent Path   |            |
                          \            /           Ossiriand     |
                        Taur-Im-Duinath             |            |
                            town                Ered Luin South  |
                                                        |       /
                                                    Ered Luin South
                                                        town

I thought I might do a quick guide to some areas that its safe(-ish) to teleport around, where you can find loot & where there's stuff to gain xp.

So firstly if you are just looking for the low dlvl wilderness thats south or east from Belegost. If you just want to get into a dungeon thats Amon Rudh which starts at dlvl 15. The loot there is pretty average though if you are patient enough to grind it'll drop eventually.

Doriath
These are forest levels, if you teleport you will 99% of time land out of LOS. safe as long as you have the means to reliably teleport again. There's not a lot of loot here, though most of its plenty good for a starting character. Not much xp, though if you want to level fast at the start look for a dragon fly. They are annoying when they run but with a bit of patience you'll gain multiple levels with 1 kill.

East Beleriand
I'm not going to say much here, as if you came from Menegroth you past through more dangerous levels. I will mention that you are in the open & archers do a lot of damage to characters not wearing a lot of armour. Treat bandits like dangerous breathers.

Dor Dinen
So when you go north of Doriath you're on plains levels & in the open. You are also deep enough to start seeing nicer stuff including occasional stat potions. This area tends to have a lot of group monsters including basic hounds, humanoids, ogres, uruks. Teleportation-wise it can be safe or not. If you don't have a solution to being blinded by elves it can be suicidal. Otherwise its pretty fine as long as you can survive landing next to a bunch of ogres or trolls.

Lootwise I think this is a better place to go then Amon Rudh. There are little house vaults with humanoids & clearing vaults with orcs. The orc vaults have too many to clear easily, so you have to play cat & mouse to get the loot. Use magic disarm to quick open the chests. It's ok-ish for xp early. If you line up the packs with frost beam, you get as much as you'd expect from bulk killing trash.

Ered Luin North & Lothlann
I sometimes do some early levelling & looting here. It's probably about on par with Amon Rudh. These are mountain levels and generally safe to teleport in. One interesting thing to look for is little demon vaults. You'll need mapping and digging to find them. They are good for jewellery but they are also good for being teleported into lava. The rings and amulets here are worth it if you can find a safe solution.

I don't know much about Lothlann other then it can spawn the wild warlords theme level. So if you are exploring north from Belegost don't go all the way north unless you want to trigger it, its once only.

Well, I'm out of steam for now. May do some other areas later.

[wobbly]

Dorthonion/Nan Dungortheb
Heading west from Dor Dinen takes you into the mountains. If you head south from the mountains you'll be in Nan Dungortheb, a "wilderness dungeon". If you head north I believe there's 1 more mountain map before the forest, 2 forest maps & then a plains map before Anfauglith.

I find the mountains reasonably safe for teleporting across. I saw a group of awake serpents of the brownlands when I passed through, so that's safe if you are prepared to land next to a bunch of them rather then "safe safe", it all depends on how much you've powered up before making the crossing.

The forest maps are similar to Doriath except a higher depth (better loot/bigger xp monster). If you like forest maps its quite reasonable to dart across the mountains into the forests on the other side. The loot is spare but decent depth, as long as you have detects(3rd book or staff) & you can pick up some stuff that you wouldn't be able to collect safely in the open.

Nan Dungortheb: This is my favoured looting spot. They are "valley" maps, which means forests with little clearing vaults and spider vaults. These little vaults are loot clumps & with good detects you can pick and choose based on whats guarding it. Teleports are safe-ish for the same reason forest maps are. However here you might land near a black scorpion (hit to blind) or abyss spiders (about basilisk danger?). I found this good to loot around the time fireball & haste reached reasonable fail rates. Haste up, spam fireballs at the spiders (they are good xp), grab loot.

When you get towards Ungoliant depth (70?) you cross the line where FA turns from stingy to loot explosions of artifacts. The spiders will now be children of Ungoliant & they are nasty but big xp. If you bore of killing spiders there will be large dragons and late game uniques at this depth. The dragons are also good xp/drops, but here the forest works for & against you. It's hard to take them at range because they have cover, but you can also reliably phase out of LOS. Its worthwhile once you can cop the 1st breathe at close range basically.