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[flame99]

Just found a pearl dragon hide on D1 

Naturally, I lost the character soon thereafter to an early ogre and me getting no escape items before that point.

[Sarrak]

Died in the Zig to the titan airstrikes, making some ridiculous mistakes along the course.

Started as a Deep Dwarf Berserker and converted to The Shining One after clearing Vaults, leaving Depths for later. Grave mistake. After slightly struggling with the Crypt, I was outmatched by lame yaks and giants with my zero regeneration and vampirism taboo - I went to Cocytus twenty times just to heal damage from trying to finish Depths. Pan was fun and really easy compared to nightmarish Depths.

To sum this play experience: TSO is great against undead & demons (Tomb, Abyss, Pan). But when playing as Deep Dwarf and converting to TSO, you can reliably kill only undead & demons. Any strong living mob becomes deadly.

[motorbitch]

i am utterly frustrated by the magic system of this game.
to cast spells like poison arrow, bolt of XX  or even crystall spear, one has to sacrifice a lot of ac and skill points.
but these spells are so inaccurate that its almost suicide to use them. the only spells that are reliable are the aoe spells and ood.
i think this makes the whole game a lot worse then it could be.

[debvon]

i am utterly frustrated by the magic system of this game.
to cast spells like poison arrow, bolt of XX  or even crystall spear, one has to sacrifice a lot of ac and skill points.
but these spells are so inaccurate that its almost suicide to use them. the only spells that are reliable are the aoe spells and ood.
i think this makes the whole game a lot worse then it could be.

If you're facing off against a dangerous mob of creatures and you miss two (or even one) high level spells, the correct response is to calmly walk up some stairs and try again from a safer distance. Or use an escape tool. It's not even close to "almost suicide" to use spells that can miss. Not even inaccurate ones like iron shot. Suicide is when you get frustrated that you missed and you try again, and again, until the beast is right up in your face. Or when you try to iron shot something in the same turn that it could kill you. Doesn't make the spell or the magic system bad, it makes you bad at using magic.

[motorbitch]

i disagree. just because often there are ways to deal with that, it doesnt make it not bad.
as it stands, most of these direct fire spells are incredible unpopular.
but sure, the reason must be that everybody just sucks to hard to make these awsome tools good.

[Sarrak]

Direct fire spells are not popular for other reasons. Most end-game foes have decent fire resistance (which aoe spells partially ignore) and come at you in big groups - spending turns killing them one by one may prove to be very dangerous.

[motorbitch]

i realy dont think thats the reason. many direct fire spells deal irresistable damage, (like bolt of magma, poison arrow... ), or physical damage (all the earth spells).
but even when facing  a single tough target, any non aoe spell (exept ood in open terrain) is a bad idea, because the hit chances are just to low.

[debvon]

but even when facing  a single tough target, any non aoe spell (exept ood in open terrain) is a bad idea, because the hit chances are just to low.

I don't understand how you came to that conclusion at all. A mid-late game character that's putting points into defense and fighting/weapon as well as spellcasting and conjuration doesn't even need single target spells if they have access to AOEs like freezing cloud. A "full" spellcaster/conjuror relies on single target spells to dispose of key targets as quickly as possible, and the chance of missing isn't low enough on almost anything over level 5 to outweigh its effectiveness. AOE spells will kill that target reliably, but never as quickly as a crystal spear. Single target spells aren't meant to be used for every single fight, they're there to kill one thing quickly at high expense and they're great at it. It's not efficient, but it doesn't have to be.

[Antioch]

I ALWAYS regret it at some point if I don't have crystal spear in the endgame. Its just the best spell to deal with single powerful enemies.

[Il Palazzo]

How's the accuracy for spellcasting determined anyway?

[Sarrak]

Won as HOFi of Beogh, 15 runes & Orb. 144712 turns, 11 orc warlords trained, 4 survived until end (and killed half of Pan lords and Hell uniques).

First win! This time I learned two things. First, that orc warlords can get unbelievably tough and strong - but they really need elemental resistances. Gift them something with F+, other elements are much more survivable. Second... I truly hate mummies. No other enemy in this game grates on my nerves so much.

[Gamerlord]

Bwah hah hah, Qazlal is so fucking awesome. In the version I'm playing you get a smite-targeted attack, a 'fuck everything' attack, elemental allies, elemental resistances according to what you're hit with and passive damage to what ever stands near you. Add on playing as a Gargoyle Fighter with a disc of storms and decent Evocations... Or the artifact mace Firestarter which gives things Inner Flame - the clouds of flame that appear after the explosion don't hurt you because of Qazlal's immunity to your own clouds thing.

[tompliss]

Oh, do the inner flame clouds get transformed into allies by the "clouds into allies" ability ?

[motorbitch]

yeah, it can generate tons of elementals. its basically a sentinel mark on you all time tho.
this has the advantage of getting more xp: go up a ladder, and at last one respawned monster will find you very fast.
the disadvantage is that its virtually impossible to rest untill a floor is completely cleared.
so yeah, pretty awsome, but also very dangerous.

[tompliss]

Yeap, that's why clearing near the stairs first makes even mroe sense with Quaz than with other gods/items.
On the other have, if you find the Shield of the Gong, you won't have to care about its noise :p