Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[tompliss]

You know it also work against the Lich's crystal spears ?
Those are really funny, when they one-shot themselves !

[Robsoie]

I hope they'll do that against me, but i'm not to eager to meet ancient liches yet

Currently my gargoyle is clearing Vault, i'm not yet on the bottom floor ambush (unless they changed it) but i'm confident my character can do it (just reached level 20), but i ran into the branch entrance "enchanted forest" , apparently full of spriggans.

That's my first time ever running into this one (and reading around, it switches place with Crypt, so no Crypt for me then), i hope to find some nice stuff from what i just read about it, still needed fire resistance (incredible that this game so far didn't generate any rF items for me).

edit : ouch, i don't know if that was bad luck but enchanted forest has been insanely hard, half those enemies are berserkers that hit very very hard despite my high AC (43 so far, couldn't believe one of them even destroyed half of my health in 1 strike, how can those low health race even survive there ?) and the other half are confusing me each turns (great that the game didn't gave me any stasis amulet) or summoning bears that are berserking.

Without my berserking, my regen and brother in arms ability (and a bunch of cure potion to get out of confusion) , my gargoyle would have been dead a dozen of time at least.

Crypt is a cakewalk in comparison, i wish i would have got it instead, especially for the weak loot i got so far from the enchanted forest in comparison to how insanely dangerous it has been.

I'll get back to Vault and try to clear it, it has been much safer , if that even say something about what i got in enchanted forest.

[tompliss]

Yeah, enchanted forest is bad for your health. much harder than crypt, apparently, but still getting work in Trunk...
I wouldn't recommend you to go in Forest if you can't "easily" handle Elf:3, that's saying something about its difficulty.

And, by the way, I wouldn't recommend putting even a step in forest, if you're going for a 3 runes win ^^

[Robsoie]

After destroying the Vault bottom ambush with stairs and corridors (my AC was good enough to take the hits from stair climbing), i got my hands on the vault rune on the 1st of the 4 area i decided to explore.


that Vault bottom while being unchanged was a lot easier to my character than even the 1st floor of "enchanted forest" if it can warn people enough to avoid that branch until post-endgame.

That's the 3rd rune, now is probably time to get to those fabled "Depths" , the new addition to the dungeon structure that replace D:17 to D:27. Never played any versions with that, what kind of insanity and monsters am i going to encounter down there ?
Should i grind a bit more in unexplored parts of the branchs, or is level 22 enough to deal with "Depths" ?

On some good news, i'm at skill 16 in maces/whips, meaning now i'm at the minimum delay for my 1 handed antimagic eveningstar given by Trog to fit nicely with my shield of reflection (took from Donald much earlier) and so replace my electrical demon whip  , hopefully i'll find more scrolls to improve the +4,+4 bonus i already have on it.

[tompliss]

Depths are just a bit harder than Vault. In fact, with the Convoker in Vault, those may be more dangerous, but Depths is more about your resistances :
You'll frequently encounter a fire/frost giant that will happily fire a bolt at you and attack with branded weapons, and there are some hell knights (and the classic yaktaur packs).
It is somewhat more crowded than the usual dungeon level, but as you're not a caster with high noise spells, you should be alright (as long as you don't missclick on your scroll of noise).

Basically, you survived Vault:5, you should survive depths, if you don't rush it, nor jump on the Pan/Hell entrances where there might be high tier demons. And there is the same type of zot entrance-vault at the bottom, by the way

[Robsoie]

Thanks, i'll make sure to keep all my res rings on me to switch quickly when needed.

And only found my first fire res items in Vault:5 by the way, the game really didn't wanted to throw them at me before.

edit : been cruising through a few of the Depths, not yet at the bottom, it looks like the population is roughly what you would get from the old D:24/D:27.

But i found some nice items, completing a bit better my resistances, and even got 2 potions of experiences from the same floor ! they're coming very nicely as i was near to lv27 and so it required a lot of XP between levelup by then.

Hmm, too much luck in Crawl usually means only that it's going to break you later.

I see a lot more new configurations in the dungeon generation than before, it's really great to create more variety from when you played the game a lot already.

I hope Zot didn't get a difficulty increase, always got a lot of problems in there, assuming of course i keep my guy alive until then.

That early amulet of the gourmand really make me enjoying the game a lot , as i always disliked the focus on the hunger minigame , the ability to get yourself engorged allows me to just don't focus so much on eating everything and move along in the more interesting parts of the game.

[tompliss]

I see a lot more new configurations in the dungeon generation than before, it's really great to create more variety from when you played the game a lot already.

That was the main motivation when creating the Depths : the late dungeon, from 15 to 27 was a boring phase, so they halved it and increased its difficulty, putting some weirder vaults and monsters there.

I don't think Zot increased in difficulty recently, but I was too noob to go there with 0.10, so I can't be sure about that ^^

[Robsoie]

Hopefully i'll keep it up with my character, he's nearly ready and cleared the last depth (Depths:6)

The change between Depth and the previous dungeon is really felt in how it looks and in the enemies, that did a good job at keeping me on my "cautious mode" instead of dying to due getting bored by the repetitivity and forgetting what kind of items i have to escape danger.



The biggest danger to my character in the Depths were the Deep Trolls actually, their ability to dig around, creating big opening in what i wanted to keep as a chokepoint for crowd control got me in some dangerous situation several time, i wasn't expecting them to do that, as they weren't able to dig at will the last time i faced them.


Now i'll have to go back to my stash and finally complete the +3 ice dragon armor with my last enchant armor scroll found here (the treasure trove request such armor as an entrance fee)
In the whole game i got only 1 ice dragon that left a hide after butchering.
And despite i killed and butchered several golden dragons in the depths, not once any of them left a hide, so at least i wasn't tempted to lose my last enchant armor scroll and lose my treasure trove entry.

Hopefully it will be better than last time i accessed a trove and only got weaker items than i had.

edit : what a joke ...
content of treasure trove : 2 manuals of crossbow, 2 manuals of dodging, 2 manuals of evocation, 1 scroll of teleportation, 1 scroll of blinking, 1 scroll of fog, 2 scrolls of silence.

I guess the anti-robsoie code in Crawl has been triggered

edit 2 :
Got to Zot, same place as it has always been, though it seems there are more open space, made it more difficult to control the fight when facing a party of draconians, fortunately my character was strong enough and with some stair fight i could avoid fighting while too outnumbered.

Then Zot bottom, same scary place as in the past, this time the configuration of the entrance to the vaults itself was in a configuration that included a corridor, helping me to control the fight , as there was an insane bunch of high level enemies in there and the very nearby stairs helped when i needed to get some breath back for fighting more.


For the battles i was wearing an anti mutation amulet (in prevision to those nasty orbs of fire) but still i got 2 bad ones, i had to get back all the way to my Lair:2 stash to drink my cure mutation potion, lucky it got rid of both.

And so finally i managed to get to the central vault

Hopefully i'll be able to get back to D:1 without getting overwhelmed by the demons spawning constantly (assuming it hasn't changed since past version)

But damned fire users, burned all my blink scrolls i had saved for Zot, that really didn't helped at all.

[tompliss]

Well, it's not THAT bad.
I mean, the new evocables are really good and a bit of evocation can always help, and a dodging is only good when really high with heavy armor.
I mean, you're a Trogbro you spellcasting is useless for you. It means you only have Fighting + Mace + Armor + dodge + evo that are useful to spend XP on. So you can spend the only XP left on dodging, hiping to overcome the EV penalty before ascending


[EDIT] no conservation cloak ?
and yeah, there is still the demon spawning when ascending. Good luck for your last part or the game

[Robsoie]

No, nothing helpful to conserve items in this run, i didn't even found any amulet of conservation (i wouldn't have used it , too busy trying not to be mutated with the anti mutation amulet)

But anyways, yes !


After running and using my wand of digging a lot to get shorter path between stairs i managed to get back to the exit with very few fighting, as some nasty group of spawned demons sometime popped up, i had to fight one of the pan lords as he was much faster than me, to my surprise i annihilated him in 3 turns.

But at least victory !

Code: [Select]

1547945 Vir the Impregnable (level 27, 182/188 HPs)
             Began as a Gargoyle Berserker on Jan 28, 2014.
             Was an Elder of Trog.
             Escaped with the Orb
             ... and 3 runes on Jan 29, 2014!
             
             The game lasted 06:10:41 (91096 turns).

HP 182/188       AC 48     Str 30     
MP  14/14        EV 18     Int 10     
Gold 6431        SH 35     Dex 15     

rFire  + + .     SeeInvis +     m - +7,+6 eveningstar (antimagic)
rCold  + + .     Clarity  .     A - -1 plate armour {rF+}
rNeg   + . .     Conserve .     D - +5 shield of Resistance {rF+ rC+ MR+}
rPois  +         rCorr    .     r - -1 helmet {Int+3}
rElec  +         rRot     +     T - +1 cloak of the Last Gods {Str+3 Dex+1 Int-3}
SustAb . .       Spirit   .     I - +0 pair of gloves
rMut   +         Warding  .     d - -1 pair of boots
Saprov . . .     Stasis   .     W - amulet of resist mutation
MR     ++++.                    n - ring of protection from magic
                                Z - ring "Icsiz" {+Fly rElec rC+ SInv}

@: flying, incredibly resistant to hostile enchantments, extremely unstealthy
A: large and strong wings, life protection 1, electricity resistance,
unbreathing, petrification resistance, AC +20
a: Stop Flying, Burn Spellbooks, Berserk, Trog's Hand, Brothers in Arms,
Renounce Religion
0: Orb of Zot
}: 3/15 runes: decaying, serpentine, silver

You escaped.
You worshipped Trog.
Trog was greatly pleased with you.
You were not hungry.

You visited 10 branches of the dungeon, and saw 60 of its levels.
You also visited: Labyrinth, Trove, Ice Cave and Wizlab.

You collected 6431 gold pieces.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 m - a +7,+6 anti-magic eveningstar (weapon)
 K - the +10,+10 sling of Trog {flame, rPois MR++}
   (Trog gifted it to you on level 12 of the Dungeon)   
   
   It turns projectiles fired from it into bolts of flame.
   
   It protects you from poison.
   It affects your resistance to hostile enchantments.
 O - a +0,+4 flail of holy wrath
 U - the +9,+4 morningstar of Reapportionment {flame, rN+ Str+2 Int+2}
   (Trog gifted it to you on level 4 of the Depths)   
   
   It emits flame when wielded, causing extra injury to most foes and up to
   double damage against particularly susceptible opponents.
   
   It affects your strength (+2).
   It affects your intelligence (+2).
   It protects you from negative energy.
 Y - a +3,+3 sling of frost
Missiles
 i - 37 exploding sling bullets
 l - 45 sling bullets of flame
 w - 42 poisoned sling bullets
 z - 86 sling bullets of frost
Armour
 d - a -1 pair of boots (worn)
 q - the +15 large shield "Bullseye" {EV-5}
   (You found it in a wizard's laboratory)   
   
   It affects your evasion (-5).
 r - a -1 helmet of intelligence (worn)
 A - a -1 plate armour of fire resistance (worn)
 D - the +5 shield of Resistance (worn) {rF+ rC+ MR+}
   (You found it on level 5 of the Vaults)   
   
   It protects you from fire.
   It protects you from cold.
   It affects your resistance to hostile enchantments.
 I - a +0 pair of gloves (worn)
 T - the +1 cloak of the Last Gods (worn) {Str+3 Dex+1 Int-3}
   (You found it on level 5 of the Vaults)   
   
   It affects your strength (+3).
   It affects your intelligence (-3).
   It affects your dexterity (+1).
Magical devices
 j - a wand of digging (10)
 k - a wand of draining (9)
 p - a wand of enslavement (6)
 u - a wand of cold (4)
 G - a wand of fire (10)
 H - a wand of teleportation (9)
 R - a wand of slowing (16)
 S - a wand of paralysis (13)
 X - a wand of lightning (6)
Comestibles
 b - 12 meat rations
 c - 7 bread rations
Scrolls
 e - a scroll of teleportation
Jewellery
 h - an uncursed ring of positive energy
 n - a ring of protection from magic (right hand)
 x - an uncursed ring of sustain abilities
 y - an uncursed amulet of the gourmand
 C - an uncursed ring of teleport control
 M - an uncursed ring of protection from cold
 N - an uncursed ring of fire
 Q - an uncursed ring of protection from magic
 W - an amulet of resist mutation (around neck)
 Z - the ring "Icsiz" (left hand) {+Fly rElec rC+ SInv}
   (You took it off a minotaur in a labyrinth)   
   
   [ring of flight]
   It protects you from cold.
   It insulates you from electricity.
   It enhances your eyesight.
Potions
 a - 2 potions of resistance
 f - 3 potions of curing
 o - 4 potions of brilliance
 s - a potion of berserk rage
 t - 2 potions of heal wounds
 v - a potion of agility
 F - 2 potions of speed
Rods
 J - a +2 rod of warding (13/13)
   (You found it on level 7 of the Lair of Beasts)


   Skills:
 + Level 23,3 Fighting
 - Level 16,3 Maces & Flails
 - Level 11,2 Slings
 + Level 24,3 Armour
 + Level 19,4 Dodging
 - Level 15,0 Shields
 + Level 21,1 Evocations


You had 26 spell levels left.
You didn't know any spells.

You are resistant to torment.
You are immune to poison.
You can fly continuously.
Your stone body is very resilient (AC +20).
Your wings are large and strong.
You resist negative energy.
You are resistant to electric shocks.
You can survive without breathing.
You are immune to petrification.

Happy to not have been mutated on the way up.

I never thought Gargoyles were -that- strong, their power is really a major reason i won, more than tactics i must say.

[Mr Space Cat]

I just noticed you had an eveningstar. Those are pretty great, if I had to choose between the elec demon whip or antimagic eveningstar then I'd take the eveningstar.

[Robsoie]

Yes, once i switched to it (when my mace/flail/whip skill reached 15 so i could get the lowest delay on it) , it did a rather amazing work at dealing pain to my enemies.
It was a worthy sacrifice of many enchant scrolls to improve the +,+ bonuses too, and the brand was doing really fine job (maybe one of the reason my guy survived so long too)

[Robsoie]

Currently running a nice Spriggan Enchanter, giving a try to the new Dithingygos to see what is it about.

So far he has been rather good, but Spriggan Enchanter have always been a good combo.

But as confusing and hibernating is limited at some point with monsters immune or very resistant to those, i decided to switch to necromancy , considering i've been very unlucky in the books i found in which there was no offensive spells yet.

Oh, it's not entirely true, i found a book with fire-based offensive spells and guess what ... Dithingy dislike fire spells ... yeah, i guess Crawl didn't liked me winning a character recently.

Anyways, at some point i found 2 "beneficial mutation" potions, something new to me as in the last versions i played there was no such thing. So i decided to drink
The 1st gave me slimy scale, meaning a very tiny increase of AC, 2 points, near useless to make a real gameplay difference but better than nothing i guess
Now the 2nd one gave me "wild magic" , improving the spellpowers of my spell of 1 "*"  (so barely noticable) , while increasing their casting failure (and there it's really noticable).

Oh well, i hope to get a cure mutation potion soon enough.

At that time, my good Spriggan is clearing the Spider Nest (or at least until i get an unwinnable situation in which case i'll go grind elsewhere) and leading his mighty army of undead spiders, there's very few that can stand against him (poor Donald, killed him in my Gargoyle run, then killed him again overwhelmed with my legion of spider).



I wish i could bring my minions with me, too bad undead are unable to get through stairs.

At first i thought it was a bug as i couldn't get the Stabbing skill to appear in my list, but looking around apparently they removed it and it's basically a mix of your stealth and your weapon skill that now give you stab bonuses

[tompliss]

You don't want to lose the Wild Magic mutation. The increase in spellpower is more meaningful than you think, especially with Hexes, and non-summon necromancy : higher spellpower with hexes and Agony means higher chance to be effective, and the bonus is really important against high-MR or high-HD enemies.

Globally, it means you need less XP spend on skills to have the catch up with the increase failure rate that what you would need (without the mutation) to catch up with the spellpower.

[Robsoie]

I'll keep it then for now (just found a cure mutation potion in the spider rune vault)

My assembled army in front of the spider rune vault


Battle happened with some formicids guys along the usual scary emperor scorpions and a damned ghost moth that took a long time to take out (especially with the damned thing destroying my mana and resisting to absolutely everything.

The turning point of the battle was when i managed to raise an emperor scorpion that just fell, as my army was being decimated by a couple of them, i had to teleport away at some point (damn ghost moth) , but finally in hit&run tactics i managed to clear that rune vault, my only ally left was an emperor scorpion recently raised.



And finally the spider nest rune was in sight, along with some ambrosia


Beware the emperor scorpions, they're still as strong as in the past.

edit : oh great, damn that smoke clouds generated automatically by Dithingy guy when you take damage.

I was fighting an efreet with my undead followers (2 hill giants) , we were easily destroying that guy, as i noticed his fire wasn't hurting me much, but suddenly game over while i was still pressing some buttons ...

... What ?

Looking at the morgue file, i saw what happened . There was a living hill giant that was present, despite i had not noticed him coming at all because of all that annoying smoke covering the whole zone (due to the few damage i was taking, it's one of the Dithingos god power) , and that guy had just hit me insanely hard 2 times in a turn.

I guess time to go play something else or i'll throw that monitor through the window.