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[EnigmaticHat]

Implying I've ever gotten out of the early game   I nearly made it to the bottom of the Dungeons this time before I retreated down the stairs at low health and then was killed by an unseen horror while healing 

Troll hunter does seem very practical though.  Large rocks give burst damage and hydra slaying, nets are rare but pretty consistently useful in my experience, while poison darts can be extremely effective debuffs, all for one skill.  Although I assume nets and poison darts totally drop off in the lategame.

[tompliss]

Yeah, nets are useful in the early game but quickly get in a weird position :
Nets are useless against "big" enemies, which are the (non-unique) ones you want to net (as most others come in group where neutralizing one isn't always useful).
Poison needles are always useful against poison-vulnerable (Snake branch) but loose nearly all their potential after that, as their damage is fixed (throwing improves accuracy and delay), and undead/demons usually are poison resistant/immune. Curare are always useful, though, because of the "slow" effect that reduce the efficiency of every non-immune whatever their HD is

[debvon]

I don't play a lot of bow/xbow users but I'm trying to learn. I've been pretty happy with my progress on halfling gladiators transitioning into bows. It's so easy to put some points into slings and throwing and use all of that delicious poison ammunition.

But here's my question: Is it even necessary to train longswords if shortbows is already higher than it? I mean if I get a good branded sword I get it. But if bows is trained to 14 and I've got a +0 long sword and a +1 shortbow with unlimited ammunition, I may as well just shoot everything and ignore the sword completely right?

[tompliss]

I think that melee weapons can deal more damage than ranged ones.
Yeah, it means training yet another skill to really high levels (as most late-game ranged weapons are 2 handed, you'll want a 2 handed melee weapon, so a skill between 18 and 26 to have maximum efficiency with those).
I think there are really few cases where you might want not to train melee skill (if you find an artifact bow/Xbow from the heaviest category you can wield, and with 10+ enchantment).

[Moron]

As a halfling, you can't use longbows or most 2-handed melee weapons, and a short bow doesn't do that much damage in the late game.

You might be better with crossbows, though your aptitude is not great, or go with slings and hope to find a demon blade for melee.

[tompliss]

Yeah, I think bows aren't really good for halfling (except if you find a great artefact) :
You have better apt in slings and the great ones deal nearly as much as the shortbow but you can get exploding ammo, IIRC.
Crossbow are a better option if you plan to keep it for more than just reducing the HP before going melee : you can wield them all (and piercing brand is best brand).

[Moron]

My HaBe found tomahawks to be a good ranged option, though you have to train throwing to high levels to get the most from them.

[Zireael]

I tend to play DECj, and recently got as far as D:8 before getting killed. Slowly getting the hang of the game, though.

[Damiac]

Nets are useful until the end of the game. They can be thrown on liches, draconians, killer clowns, curse toes, and all sorts of other late game threats.
They are useless against giant enemies, as well as unsubstantial enemies, like ghosts, but there are decent targets for netting at any point in the game.

Large rocks are just awesome, I probably should have recommended the hunter start over the berserker start for a troll.  You can always pick up trog at the temple, but there's usually not any large rocks there.

They do more than stop your target from walking around, they also make their EV 0, meaning you will hit them every time, and they cause the enemy to be distracted, meaning you do additional stabbing damage every hit they're in the net.  Not to mention, they make the enemy waste a few turns trying to get out of the net.

[Dr Feelgood]

Ranged is better than melee. Large rocks are the best ranged weapon, but few can use them. Item weight was removed, so now you can carry hundreds of them, instead of 5. 

Branded javelins are great as well, and tomahawks are surprisingly powerful. Throwing is essentially the unarmed combat of ranged skills: it starts off awful, then it becomes godly at high levels. It's the best ranged skill, since the most damaging missiles rely on throwing skill and you get to use needles to full effect. Longbows were really good, but awkward to play. The changes to missiles made playing with lowbows simpler. Crossbows sucked the last time I won with one, but I heard they're pretty good now.

I haven't played a sling user recently, but slings were decent for a 3-rune game. They weren't very effective against demon lords though. It took over 50 steel bullets with a highly enchanted velocity sling to "moderately" injure Antaeus. Slings got nerfed, so they're probably the worst ranged option now.

You'll want to use a melee weapon early on. Pick a melee weapon with low exp requirements (staves, demon weapons, etc.). Once you have a decent stockpile of ammo and high ranged skill, you can switch entirely to ranged combat.

[Moron]

Nets are useful until the end of the game. They can be thrown on liches, draconians, killer clowns, curse toes, and all sorts of other late game threats.

They work on a lot of pan lords too (but not Cerebov who is too large.)

[EnigmaticHat]

So, I've never reached Dungeon 15 before.

Well this game I completely cleared out Dungeon, Lair, Orc Mines, and 90% of Elven Halls.  I expected Elven Halls: 3 was going to be crazy but I wasn't ready for what was to come.  The big fight mainly consisted of powerful elven mages advancing down this awkwardly shaped hall and me responding with my rods of Ignition and Cloud, large rocks, poison javelins, curare needles, and a ton of tomahawks.  The whole area was a mess of corpses and ammunition.  This was all going fine until I decided the flow had stopped and most of them were probably dead (don't judge me, I was tired).  Cue walking out of the hallway and being caught in the open in the LOS of two master archers and about five high level mages.

At this point I decided to go nuts with abilities since it was use them or die.  I used Deal Four on a destruction deck, which resulted in exactly one attack ("the Deep Elf Master Archer resists with great effort"... sigh) but quickened me twice and dropped rained clouds everywhere.  I evoked my ring of invisibility and ran down the hallway dropping a frozen cloud behind me with my rod.  I totally would have survived except for the incredibly frustrating lost soul/revive thing death mages have, but that happened, and both a death mage and master archer made it through.  I was at such low health I obviously wasn't going to survive running, so I used a fan of gales blowing them all away, used Deal Four on a legendary war deck which created some useful effects but also a twister blocking my escape(!). Then for good measure I dropped a second fan of gales.  When the smoke cleared, I was at 10 health, a teleport was about to trigger, and there was a wall of friendly air elementals in between me and the other enemies.

Cue an Deep Elf Conjurer bypassing both the invisibility and elementals by hitting me with fucking Hellfire

[tompliss]

Ok, advice time, then :
Don't do Elf.
I know it's in Orc, but it's clearly harder, and the reward isn't worth the risk. Most experienced players don't even enter Elf when doing a 3-rune game (what you should be aiming for your first win).
Elf generally isn't "that" hard but can get spikes of difficulty at anytime. And the vault in Elf:3 is clearly one of the most difficult in the game, because of the potential damage from the numerous Hellfire and the high speed attacks (master archers and the melee dual wielders who can have quickblades).

[Moron]

Most of the really dangerous elves can see invisible, so it probably didn't help as much as you thought it would.

[Zireael]

My best run was D:8 - and got mauled by an unseen horror before I remembered how to cast without visible enemies.