YACD High-elf Ranger

[Parcae]

Since my High-elf Mages kept dying horrible deaths on level 10, I decided on something with a little more staying power. Here's the dump.

I have a number of questions.

1. What is an appropriate strategy at this stage? I see all these characters on the ladder with marvellous equipment at clvl 20, and I'm wondering what I'm missing.
2. Those extra shots per round. How do they work? I still fire one arrow at a time. Does it give me an extra action per round, like being hasted to +10?

[Parcae]

Oh, and one more thing. Do the extra ranger shots apply only to longbows, or to crossbows as well? I just found a Light Crossbow of Extra Shots (+1), and the char sheet still only lists me as having 2 ranged attacks rather than 3. Also, when do you get the extra ranger shots?

[Psi]

1. You find the good equipment by diving deeper. Try and keep your CL < DL for starters. Enchant your bow up to (+9,+9) as quickly as possible.

2. Yes, you get two shots per round.

Not sure about the specific ranger questions for V, but in FA (via rapid fire speciality) and NPP - additional ranger shots are with a bow.

[Dragonboneman]

In V, rangers only get extra shots with bows (not crossbows). I *think* they come at CL 30 and CL 40, but I could well be mistaken.

[Djabanete]

When I played a V ranger (must have been 3.0.5 or 3.0.6) I got extra shots at levels 20 and 40. And yeah, you only get extra shots on a bow, not a crossbow. (I never tried a sling, but slings are wimpy anyway.)

[Dragonboneman]

You're right, the first extra shot comes at 20, not 30.
http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=7111

[Magnate]

Originally Posted by Parcae

2. Those extra shots per round. How do they work? I still fire one arrow at a time. Does it give me an extra action per round, like being hasted to +10?

In Angband, your character has an "energy" stat, which is not shown. Each game turn you gain an amount of energy which is determined by your speed (10 energy at speed +0). Whenever you reach 100 energy you get to take a turn (so one "player turn" equals 10 "game turns" at normal speed).

Almost all actions (moving, melee attacking, disarming, spiking/bashing a door, using a scroll/potion/device, putting on a piece of kit etc.) take exactly 100 energy. In some variants some actions take less time (dropping stuff, dousing your lamp), but these are minor.

The one big exception to the 100 energy rule is extra missile shots (whether granted by equipment or the ranger bonus shots). The game works out your total number of shots per turn and divides this into 100. So if you have 2 shots, each takes 50 energy. If you have 3, each takes 33 energy. Etc. It's a bit of a kludge really, but it seems to work.

Monsters have the same energy issue as you - they get 10 energy per turn (adjusted by speed) and they get to move or attack when they pass 100 energy.

So with extra shots you get a lot of "double moves" on monsters - you get to shoot, then you get another turn before they can do anything. This opens up lots of "pillar dancing" possibilities.

So the short answer is that your first extra shot is actually better than +10 speed. Your second is almost-but-not-quite as good as another +10 speed. Each extra shot (you can theoretically end up with six shots as a ranger with a +3 randart bow) is worth slightly less than the last. This is why rangers usually prefer Extra Might bows to Extra Shots bows, since they get the two most valuable extra shots anyway.

CC

[Parcae]

Thanks, that was very helpful. I'll post another dump soon - right now I'm on level 30, scumming for stat potions.

[Paffa]

Well, you can't really help with the equipment thing, your kit seems pretty normal for that depth. I usually hang around at level 20 until I find shield or armour of resistance.

If that xbow has big pluses, you might want to use it until you get a better bow. In the endgame normal bow is really the only option, with those two extra shots from being a ranger and possibly more from the bow itself.

[Parcae]

The promised update.

Still scumming for stat potions. It looks like a long wait...