Decisions, Decisions

[tprice]

I updated the ladder for MerryJohn.

What a level! and thats with NO vaults. just a bunch of uniques roaming around... a stupid undead beholder actual gave me the most trouble returning from TO and zapping me for xp loss until i remembered the Banishment staff i had found last trip down. Goodbye e's!

I think i can ditch my rods of treasure detection now that i have two plain detection rods (one at home). Arkenstone was another nice upgrade that fits in with that decision.

I finally upgraded my bow after over 30DL and lots of CLs. They dropped BOTH Amras and Amrod in back to back fights. I'm keeping Amras for the +shots I think.

Have to ponder the armor options.

I'll stop for the night before leaving the level so i can decide what to take and what to leave behind... Any advice from the peanut gallery is much appreciated.

[tprice]

See updated ladder entry

Its raining Artifact Bows since i just found Belthronding.

Not bad for a quick level played on 2 breaks at work on a slow day.

Since i just maxed my internal stats and have excellent stealth and speed I'm thinking about reading those scrolls of deep decent to dive down deeper and sneak around offing Uniques and upgrading gear.

This character is going so well it's scaring me.

[tprice]

Yah, i decided to Dive via Deep Decent scrolls. ended up using 3 of them so I'm down in the mid dl80's now and feeling REALLY nervous again, aka how @ should feel ;-)

That last level had the Witch King, Vecna, 2 other Ring Wraiths, and at least a couple more uniques and a bunch of "I've not seen THAT before" normal monsters. My stack of 9 TO rods got a work out and i had to use my rod of Restoration a couple times when they came through the walls at me but i survived OK. The scary thing is even with all those "i dont want to fight YOU" monsters it was only a 7 danger feeling... Going to have to spend a while going slower and picking off uniques one by one.

no real gear upgrades, just a few end game consumables really. Oh and a pile of Rubble that gave me a !XP that bumped me over to CL43.

[tprice]

updated the ladder again. http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=18435 MerryJohn is now my most successfull character by both CL and by DL (far and away there)

I finally dumped my trusty weapon of extra attacks for

  Scythe of Slicing (Holy Avenger) (8d4) (+20,+15) [+3] <+3>
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 4350 feet (level 87)
     
     +3 wisdom.
     Slays evil creatures, undead, demons.
     Provides protection from fear.
     Sustains constitution.
     Blessed by the gods.  Grants the ability to see invisible things. 
     
     Combat info:
     5.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 495.5 vs. evil creatures, 611.5 vs. undead,
     611.5 vs. demons, and 379.5 vs. others.

from what i have read that might be end game viable.

its been a busy day with family and while this was a fun few levels to unwind but I need a brain before i sort out my gear stash again...

Scariest point on some otherwise boring levels was tiptoeing around the Tarrasque when I spotted him for the first time ever. I got a Probing in but managed to not wake him up.

[Avenger]

That is a tasty Scythe.

[Derakon]

500 damage/round vs. evil is absolutely endgame-viable. Good luck!

[dstyle]

I'd consider swapping out the ring of damage for a ring of constitution. With maxed con at level 50 you're probably looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 hit points, which will make the later fights a lot more comfortable.

[tprice]

I offed a few more uniques and had fun clearing a bubble vault. But i lost my staff of banishment after many recharging in the fight against the Witch King. see updated ladder dump at http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=18435

I need to rethink my gear again. especially the ring slots after finding Nanya in a pacman level with LF2-8 :-)

Nenya is a given i think, to many bonuses and Immunity to Frost.

The Con+6 ring takes me from 850 to 967hp not insignificant but i'm not sure it is worth giving up the RoS+11 or the Dam+15 ring

I know speed falls off in usefulness after +30 fast. I need to decide if intrinsic +30 speed is better than the +Dam ring

According to Inspecting the +Dam ring isn't effecting my Arrows but it WAS a big effect on my h2h attacks though. Is that right or am i just mis-reading it?

Any advise on the rest of my gear?

[Derakon]

Originally Posted by tprice

According to Inspecting the +Dam ring isn't effecting my Arrows but it WAS a big effect on my h2h attacks though. Is that right or am i just mis-reading it?

+damage on anything that isn't a launcher or ammo doesn't improve ranged damage.

I haven't looked at the speed charts lately, but I think the difference between +30 and +40 speed is something like a 5-6% improvement in the rate at which you get turns.

[tprice]

hmmmmmm That gives me some food for thought on the ring decisions then.

Between the activation on the boots and 2 rods of speed i can probably stash the RoS+11 at home now since i can keep +30 speed up basically all the time. I could swap the rods of speed and TO for book4 but the rods are lighter and don't burn and i get a better TO rate from the stack of rods than i do the spell.

+15dam x 5 blows is 75 damage a round from the ring plus any multipliers for slays due to the Holy Avenger. Useful when saving ammo by hacking up lower level trash. I haven't been feeling under HPed so far so i think I'll stash that nice +Con ring for now and go with the damage ring.

Since i don't have that staff of Banishment anymore I think I'll swap back to the Cloak Colannon from Thingol. More stealth and a tad bit of speed is nice. Even without Thingol my Dex is maxed and I had all the resists on other items.

Nenya gives me ESP so i can swap out Thranduil finally. hmmmmmm I think the Golden Crown of Gondor is my best bed since it fills a couple of resists i was missing (confusion, stunning) and adds a bit more Con adding 117HP for a current total of 967. (also making the Con ring even more un needed)

Yah, let me make up a few more branded arrows and dive back in with the new setup.