Hey you two,
(wow, long post incoming
)
I get the new races, lava orcs have a temperature mechanics, ant people have the handedness gimmick, gargoyles... as far as I can tell are just sorta tanky tengu, djinn have essence instead of normal HP/MP, etcetc
- Lava orcs : really like the Hill Orcs but less gifted with ranged weapons (a just a little less with axes, even if they're their favorites), with the temperature helpign a little gameplay change. Temperature increases with the number of ennemies on the screen (with "tension"), you have bonus AC at low temp, and more and more rF with high temperature, along with a fire magic enhancer (as if you had a ring of Fire) and some damage aura (never affect allies). Beware, though because even if at max temeprature they deal more damage around themselves, the fire also prevents them from reading scrolls, so you can't read a scroll of Blink to get away from a erally dangerous situation if you don't do it before it's too late.
- Formicids (ant People) are realyl fun and weird to play : They can wield any weapons, and even a shield with a 2-hands weapons (except for Giant Clubs) and throw large rocks like the Ogres and Trolls, without any armor penalty, but they have a 20% HP penalty compensating this. They also have a intrinsic Stasis : it prevent them from getting slowed, paralized, or TPed by hostile monsters (and quaffed potions), but also prevents them to haste, blink or TP themselves. This means they rely much more on their god's abilities and on their own : they can dig as if they had a infinite wand of digging (powered by hunger), and can Shaft themslves. this second ability can put you in more trouble than expected, as it takes time to cast and will get you down 1 to 3 levels in the dungeon, potentially in more danger than before.
- Gargoyles are an "easy" race, especially for beginners and 3-runes games : they have a really high AC bonus and some resistances. They have aptitudes making them good for classic fighters and for skald types using their bonus AC to compensate for a medium armor and still get to cast spells with their earth and conjuration skills.
- Djinn are some weird thing and I am not used to them... I was told they make good Fire elementalists for players who know how to evaluate the challenges, as they consume their HP for spells but have really good aptitudes for Fire, Air, and Hexe, and generally spellcasting.
So I slapped together a MfGl, went DithBongos since I found an altar on D:2, and just got to the Lair in time to find a +6/+9 Randart Trident of Speed, which should keep me from falling apart for a while.
Not really sure on MongoBongos, the Umbra is nice, I have a shadowstep which I haven't been able to use yet, and apparently I bleed smoke, which actually saved my life. I ran into Erolcha, who nearly instagibbed me with a bolt of lightning, but I was able to fart enough gas to conceal me while I tele'd away. Of course he won't ever be a good god for my build, but I want to see all the new things, and MfGl with some charms should be enough for 4-5 runes anyway. He really does have a stupid name, though.
Dithmengos the Shadowed is the only new god since Ash, and only in trunk for now (and still changed quite often).
He is a good of shadows, improving your stealth (nearly doubled) and Evasion, and giving you passive and active abilities that should help you stay alive when monsters are aware that you're near.
I think he should be nice for a Merfolk as you often don't want to wear a heavy armor and thus benefit more from the stealth bonus than any other Gladiator.
The smoke bleeding activates when you take high damage (the chance increasing with piety), so you can flee a hard hitter more easily (as you did), and you also get a shadow Mimic that increases the damage you deal by roughly 50% from time to time (up to 50% of the time at full piety).
There is also the ultimate ability, the Sahdow Form, that is pretty weird : It lets you take only 50% damage along with providing you many resistances, but also halves your damage output by roughly 50%. It's a escape skill that you should not activate when you're alreay too low on HP (because if you're at 30HP, any high level spell will kill you, even with its damage halved), but hen the situation becomes critical in term of enemies present.
Dithmengos can be good with many characters (as long as they're not so armored taht they nullify the stealth bonus), even if he may not be the best for a stealth assassin, as some of his abilities will be realyl overkill (you don't need to double your stealth if you alreayd don't wake ennemies up when running to then).
Heard the dungeon's been restructured a bit, can't wait to see how that goes. Hopefully this dude survives long enough.
ah, that.
The "Dungeon" part has been reduced to 16 levels instead of 27 because the last ones were just boring (the last 15 nearly had the same monsters spawning over and over), and replaced by the "Depths", which have really harder ennemies (Fire and Ive Giants, Hell Knights, and Ogre and Troll Bands, mainly). The depths are only 6 levels deep but yield the same XP value as the previous 11 dungeon levels, so you can understand why it is harder
You now need to have a rune to unlock the Vaults (it's not consumed and still counts to unlock Zot), so you'll have to get it from the Lair or the Abyss, most likely.
by the way, the Abyss was transformed a bit recently, making it 5 levels deep. With depth, you increase the danger (more monster and more dangerous ones are generated), the loot, and the chances to generate both mini-vaults and an exit. By the way, you can't find the Abyssal rune in the first 2 levels, it's easier to find in the deeper levels (even if I haven't found anyone recomending going to Abyss:5, as it is more dangerous than Hell or Crypt).