A few beginner questions

[moosferatu]

Had a blast playing a few more levels this evening. I love that Law Dragon Scale Mail. Absolutely demolishes monsters. Still haven't found a bow though...

[Theonidus]

Just a note on the stuff about rods of Detection. Quthylugs can be detected by a rangers Detect Life Spell, but Detection is still great for stuff like a Drolem.
Also yes rangers get both Mapping and Stone to Mud spells. Also Haste in the dungeon spellbook.

[moosferatu]

Well, my ranger ended up dying a few days ago on DL49 as a result of wasting time exploring a level that probably didn't have anything worthwhile but wasn't supposed to be too difficult. Nexus vortex teleported into a room next to a gorgon, phase doored away, attempted to sneak through an adjoining room containing at least on mature dragon and a greater basilisk, only to have the vortex reappear and set the entire room off right was I was moving by the basilisk. I didn't have teleport and my 3 phase doors before I died failed to get me out of the room. RIP.

Quite sad as I feel my character was really starting to come together. Oh well, on to another.

[archolewa]

Originally Posted by moosferatu

Well, my ranger ended up dying a few days ago on DL49 as a result of wasting time exploring a level that probably didn't have anything worthwhile but wasn't supposed to be too difficult. Nexus vortex teleported into a room next to a gorgon, phase doored away, attempted to sneak through an adjoining room containing at least on mature dragon and a greater basilisk, only to have the vortex reappear and set the entire room off right was I was moving by the basilisk. I didn't have teleport and my 3 phase doors before I died failed to get me out of the room. RIP.

Lost a rogue once at a minor vault in a similar way. I detected, saw a bunch of big sleeping monsters, but missed the vortex. Burrowed a hole in the wall, ready to TO an ancient gold dragon. A vortex breathed on me and the ancient gold dragon. The ancient dragon woke up, and dragon breathed on me.

Since then, vortices have rocketed up to the top of my dangerous monsters list. They breath constantly, they hunt you relentlessly and they aren't detected by ESP.

If I see a vortex coming I try to get somewhere far away from other monsters and murder them before I do anything. Except nexus and time vortices. As soon as I know they're on the level, I either Destruct them if I can, or move on. Nexus vortices because they can teleport you, as you saw, and time vortices because draining all your stats blows. Also, I think nexus vortices are really fast, so they're *incredibly* dangerous when you first meet them.

[Mondkalb]

Also, they usually come in pairs.

[moosferatu]

Am I just unlucky, or are decent bows difficult to find?

One more question about stat potions, do they dry up at a certain depth? Or do I not need to be concerned about finding them within a specific depth range?

[Grotug]

I think stat potions get more common the deeper you go. They never thin out, that's for sure.

I'm pretty sure drolems are not detectable by ESP.

Hobbit Ranger has very good device skill so using attack wands makes a lot of sense for a ranger with a lousy launcher.

Sorry your @ died. I love playing Hobbit Rangers since they are so stealthy and have such good accuracy with launchers. I agree with all the other posts in this thread about the importance of ESP. Also, your detect life spell misses a huge number of dangerous monsters: undead.

I was playing a Mage when I found an insanely powerful bow. So disappointing. Good bows may be more reliable with Standard Artifacts, but the Standard set doesn't have any *GREAT* launchers. If you want to find a truly amazing launcher you'll have to play with Random Artifacts. It's so fun when you find one!

With sooo many levels in Angband it really doesn't make sense to stay on a level a moment longer than necessary from a risk/reward perspective. Despite knowing this, personally I get attached to levels far more than I should! Playing the game a lot is the best way to learn how long you should spend on each level. It's kind of hard to explain (though I did make a post about it somewhere else on this forum). It's very rare that exploring an entire level is a good idea given that unexplored areas on new levels are just as likely to have good stuff as unexplored areas of levels you've been on awhile (which may have newly spawned monsters or monsters that were once asleep and have finally woken).

The danger ratings, just like the treasure ratings, are not fool proof indicators of their respective advisements. Shimmering vortices, for example, won't incur a high danger rating if they are not out of depth, but can easily spell your doom. Likewise, an item you might need may no longer be considered valuable by the value rating once you reach a certain depth (such as a good launcher) but which may be *extremely* valuable to you. A level with a 3 treasure feeling may be much more valuable (and safer) to you than a 9 treasure feeling level if you are too weak to carry Balance Dragon Scale Mail (9 feeling at most depths) or you cannot read a Wrath of God spell book, but most very good bows are only treasure feeling 3 for their depth. For example: a short bow of power is probably only treasure feeling 3 on DL5. While good bows may be somewhat rare at times they often do not trigger a high treasure feeling, even if they have very good to-dam values.

This doesn't mean explore every level thoroughly that has treasure feeling 3, it means don't feel bad about quitting a treasure feeling 9 level if after spending some time on the level you haven't found anything useful and see no evidence of a vault. More often than not a 9 treasure level at shallow depth will have a book you can't read or an armor you can't wear than something truly worthwhile to a Ranger: something light weight. Light weight things trigger lower value ratings than heavy things (like heavy armors and heavy weapons). As a general rule 9 treasure feelings are less meaningful early on than later on in the game. That said, 9 treasure feelings are *very* meaningful late in the game, especially at the bottom of the dungeon! If you get a 9 treasure feeling level in the DL90s you very well may want to leave no stone unturned (figuratively speaking only: items under rubble are not detected by level feelings).

[moosferatu]

Thanks, Grotug, excellent tips! I was beginning to wonder if the level feeling was leading me astray. Just makes it harder to know when to bail on a level!

I have been using more of the attack wands with this character, and, you're right, I was finding they were doing pretty good damage. It was particularly nice with this character because I found the Cloak of Thingol on DL7, which has a 95.7% chance to recharge wands/staves, making them easy to spam. That said, I just entered the 40s and haven't used any wands recently. I should give them another go.

[archolewa]

Personally, I play without level fewlings (its a bitth option) precisely because they are unreliable. If a level is sparse on loot near where I come down(i.e. within treasure location range), I usually head for the down stairs, unless there happens to be a vulnerable unique nearby, then I might kill them before going down, depending on the class.

I will occasionally go back up in the midgame if Im playing a warrior or paladin and keep having to bounce around like a pinball because everything is dangerous and waking up, but I try to avoid doing so as much as possible.

[whartung]

Reading these forums, it's clear to me I'm just not diving fast enough. Anecdotally it seems folks dive fast, dive hard and try to not leave a good looking corpse.

On my warriors, i find that it seems to be fairly easy to get in over his head. Most of the "big fights" end up sucking up a bunch of Cure * Wounds potions, speed potions, and Phase Door scrolls.

But I'm still not comfortable diving rapidly. I guess its just hard to break the habit of running around trying to kill everything and see everything. The way it's described, the game generates a large map, but folks seem to see about 25% of it.

That said, there used to be some guidelines about "you really should have this before passing Level XXX". Notably things like Free Action and See Invisible, but, later (later than I ever get), details about resistances and what not.

Are those guidelines still relevant? Is there an updated list?

I run down, but I also run back to town often. I'll spend gold freely by purchasing most anything in the store with a rune I don't know yet (since Identify scrolls have been rare for me, but I barely get down to DL30).

I guess the world is much different down there.

But that seems the mantra, go down as far as you can without getting one-shot and run away, and hope for a good drop from a random Orc.