Ring of Speed <+9> question

[Djabanete]

It's hard to give specifics because there are so many ways to die. One can try to give advice like "don't go beyond level 20 without Free Action", but actually, people do that all the time and it works out; and sticking to all the "signposts" is a great way to die of boredom.

You seem pretty familiar with the game already. Instead of trying to guess which specific pointers would be useful (and any that I could offer would be outdated), I'll just remind you of the 3 golden rules of Angband:

1) Detect everything (all the time)
2) Run like hell (all the time)
3) Heal (all the time)

Use your detection and evasion very liberally, and if you're in serious danger, don't hold back on the healing potions, either. But try to not be in serious danger, because the good healing potions are hard to come by.

[Mondkalb]

Also, don't rely only on spellcasting or reading, if you don't have rblind and rconf.

[Cutestory]

I'm going to try out the ring and see how it goes...

Mondkalb, I see you giving out a lot of advice; you should write a quick-and-dirty guide for your playstyle! I think people would find it interesting.

This is the first time I've gotten far enough to get over my initial fear of death. Dying is a crucial part of learning the game; I'm just excited to increase the amount of time *between* deaths.

[Cutestory]

@Djabanete:Boredom is no fun! Death to boredom! Boredom is killed by death, ironically.

@Mondkalb: I haven't gotten far enough to rely on either spellcasting or reading, so that isn't a problem.

I'll let you know how long I last with this ring...we'll see if I can make it to 1500'.

Play. Die. Play more. Die more.

[Mondkalb]

You can't learn what is dangerous without (almost) dying.
Even if you would use the spoiler files which tell you everything about a monster, the game has many ways of putting your chars in perilous situations by using wacky combinations of monsters to show you who really is in charge.

BTW, I'd rather read a guide by Timo or other long time players and winners.

[Cutestory]

*Any* updated guide would be worth reading, even if it's short. I'd gather the details through experience.

[Derakon]

Incidentally, if you want to see more of the game, I highly recommend playing as a half-troll warrior. Sure, they don't get any spells, but they're incredibly durable, their melee is frighteningly effective, and they're very good at ranged combat. Rangers are the most fragile of the hybrid classes; I wouldn't say they're a bad class, but they're probably not the easiest one to learn the game with. Mages have a similar problem, but even worse (because all they can do is spellcasting / magic devices and they crumple like tinfoil if they get into melee).

[Oramin]

Originally Posted by Derakon

Incidentally, if you want to see more of the game, I highly recommend playing as a half-troll warrior. Sure, they don't get any spells, but they're incredibly durable, their melee is frighteningly effective, and they're very good at ranged combat. Rangers are the most fragile of the hybrid classes; I wouldn't say they're a bad class, but they're probably not the easiest one to learn the game with. Mages have a similar problem, but even worse (because all they can do is spellcasting / magic devices and they crumple like tinfoil if they get into melee).

I personally find Rangers easy to play (as long as I don't get surprised by out of depth Ancient Multi-Hued Dragons breathing into my only resistance hole).

As for my Gnome Mage, I used to melee with him all the time; when I started, he frequently used a sling and a bow.

[Derakon]

Originally Posted by Oramin

I personally find Rangers easy to play (as long as I don't get surprised by out of depth Ancient Multi-Hued Dragons breathing into my only resistance hole).

When you're having trouble getting much past 1000', ranger strengths aren't really coming into play all that much (and if you run into an AMHD then something has gone badly wrong!). They have less survivability than rogues or paladins without being appreciably better at spellcasting, don't have the stats to be really good at melee yet, and are generally too low-level to be getting their extra missile shots yet.

As for my Gnome Mage, I used to melee with him all the time; when I started, he frequently used a sling and a bow.

Again, melee in the early game? Maybe against trivially weak enemies, but generally melee as a mage in the before-statgain part of the game is a losing proposition. I mean, I know you play more cautiously than I do and thus will tend to be higher-level for a given depth, but I wouldn't think that'd be enough to make early melee remotely viable since you simply don't have the stats to back it up.

[Oramin]

Both fair comments.

Rangers have both Magic Missile and ranged weapons early on as well as decent melee capabilities. Because of the various damage choices and utility spells, I never really had a problem at early levels with my Rangers in 3.3.2 (CLVL35 and Winner).

With the Gnome Mages (CLVL1 and Winner), it would depend on the gear I had early on. If the melee weapon did significantly more damage than either spells or the ranged weapon, then I would sometimes melee even before stat gain. Most of the time, however, before stat gain, I would rely on spells or ranged attacks; frequently the ranged weapons would deal out more damage than low level spells even taking into account the poor ranged skills of Gnome Mages. That CLVL1 was when I tried to melee a Yellow Mold on L1 of the dungeon; inspired me to make sure that I carried a sling around the next Gnome Mage.