Print

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

[Ozarck]

Anyone have some advice for playing Beogh worshipers? I just tried for the first time and had a lot of fun, I cleared out the entire dungeon, then orc, then all of lair, but died on the second floor of Spider Nest as I had no rPois and I was afraid to do Shoals. My main issue is that I originally thought that I'd have a steady supply of orcs for forever after doing the main dungeon, but then all the non-named orcs died very quickly, leaving me with only 3 (albeit strong followers). They died to a nest in the spider nest though, leaving me to die alone. How can I keep the huge army alive?

As the guy who loves beoghites, some advice:

1) Orcs are expendable, priests and wizards - doubly so (their level-ups, high priests and sorcerers, sound good on paper, but are trash to properly maintain, especially later on). Warriors and knights are where this starts to get sweet, so train them and do not let them die fast
[Orcs get (half of?) all exp you've earned, you lose no exp if orcs kills stuff; orc summons do tap into exp pool; Beogh gifts are directed by who killer was (you = random orc gets stuff)]
2) You will not keep your horde forever. It inevitably dips in numbers, but I usually manage to grind from 10-14 knights into 4-8 warlords. And warlords are VERY resilient. They also hit like trucks
3) Unless you play spellcaster, take axe, shield, good armor, resists - and TANK. By the lair, you'll giggle in delight at how easily knights despatch enemies swarming at you. Be mindful later on, though - it is more reasonable to gank up on a few enemies at Depths and onwards

Rules of Orc Jesus:
1) Keep your apostles close, recalling is cheap - Tele+Recall is good escape if not in Tomb/Vaults:5
2) Let your apostles rest their wounds until somewhat healthy
3) Avoid confusion, beware of poison, fuck torment and rot ("mishappen" malmutations are cured with exp, but rot? Nope)
4) Never take death hits instead of your apostles - they are resurrectable, you are not

Spoiler: Branches to be aware of (click to show/hide)

Snake - venomancers and their mass poison, electric snakes, massive horde at the end
Shoals - just do not let your orcs wander off your sight to be poisoned or pelted by fawns. Take end without rushing
Spider - rPoison a must, do not let orcs take many hits, emperor scorpions are damn hard
SWAMP - poison clouds, confusion clouds... learn to shout "Retreat!" and you'll do well
ELF - end vault if HELL for Beoghite. Just take the fight away from it (amass orcs close by, tell them to wait, get elves to follow you). Banishment IS final death for orcs. Even warlords are prone to it. Elves love to destroy corpses. Elves love elemental attacks. Fuck elves.

Depths - assuming you take on abovementioned things, it is normal, but somewhat different. Hordes of enemies can actually wear you down here
Vaults:5 - tell orcs wait at 4 stairs, stairdance enemies to death, use Tele+Recall as needed. Quite fun, but can get into a pitch. MR+ stuff suggested
Zot - surprisingly, not TOO difficult. Just avoid big groups and too much elemental damage. Great source of Gold Dragon Armors

Hell - quite easy if you take care to stairdance and do not rush
TOMB - I got there, I cleaned it in earlier versions, it is NIGHTMARE. Orcs are nealy helpless, especially at Tomb:3. But they let you dispatch greater mummies real fast
SLIME - Everything wants to kill you and orcs have no good grasp on corrosion. Killing RJ is easy, surviving its death horde - not so much
HELLS - they are possible, if painful to do. Travel slightly afar from orcs (Hell effects are centered on you) and be aware of Tzimitls (rot), frequest torments and other fun stuff. Ereshkigal is easy, Dispater medium, Asmodeus painful (fire clouds in close space), Antaeus - doubly so (both layout and himself)
Pandemonium - kinda from easy to worst ever possible. Cerebov is dangerous, Lom Lobon - from easy to dangerous, others meh

P.S. The MOST awesome present any orc warlord may dream of is Gold Dragon Armor. It has rPois (the most awful things are poison or confusion clouds, fuck Swamp). It has both rC and rF (nearly a must for Hells, where Torments cut their 300-400HP into double digits). And Beogh is HAPPY to enchant it further
P.P.S. Orcs have 30~40% to leave their corpse behind. Resurrect the most badass and weaponized knights/warlords, just be mindful not to let them die in the first place

To Death-Seekers: no, gathering runes while on Orb Run is not funny for beoghite. Your apostles die pointlessly and this is heartbreaking

Man, I need you to oversee my beoghite runs. I did make it to Zot: 4 once, with just Saint Roka left by my side. Got killed by corrosion in a corrrosion minivault though.

[EnigmaticHat]

One thing I would do (back on an early version) is enter a new floor with just a few newbies, then try to get one of them up to knight before all of them inevitably die because they're warriors (or Beogh help me, ordinary orcs).  Doing that every so often can keep your numbers of elites up and hopefully result in more warlords in the long run.  The early floors will very slowly spawn enemies, so technically you still have a way to upgrade the weakest of orcs up to warlord should you need that.

[FakerFangirl]

The early floors will very slowly spawn enemies, so technically you still have a way to upgrade the weakest of orcs up to warlord should you need that.

Not anymore

[Sarrak]

One thing I would do (back on an early version) is enter a new floor with just a few newbies, then try to get one of them up to knight before all of them inevitably die because they're warriors (or Beogh help me, ordinary orcs).  Doing that every so often can keep your numbers of elites up and hopefully result in more warlords in the long run.  The early floors will very slowly spawn enemies, so technically you still have a way to upgrade the weakest of orcs up to warlord should you need that.

Actually, it is far easier to train elites this way (recall getting them first helps immensely). Ordinary orcs are far too weak and are a pain to raise all the way individually, so, unless you're completely out of apostles, just keep some trainees with your group and see how they manage.
[You can get free trainees from Beogh by fighting alone on the floor or, better, in the Abyss - take care there, gifted orcs can only escape through portal alongside with you. And Abyss is, well, Abyss.]

Boon is, if you still have only two or three warlords left, raising orc to warlord is FAST. He'll get free exp just by virtue of being near you and end-game branches has tons of exp. Just be aware that orcs train after becoming warlords. And a fresh one (around 100HP) is nothing compared to veteran (up to nearly 500HP on 27 XL - which is normally unreachable unless you go Hells and Pan).

[Grek]

Is the crawl wiki broken for anyone else? All of the pages are blank. The history pages shows that they weren't blanked, but the read pages still don't have anything on them.

[Mathel]

Is the crawl wiki broken for anyone else? All of the pages are blank. The history pages shows that they weren't blanked, but the read pages still don't have anything on them.

Same for me/

[Inarius]

same for me :/

but you can still read it by clicking on "source" (it's styleless, though)

[LordPorkins]

So, quick query: Does anyone else wish we still had Iskendurens Battlesphere?

And furthermore, does anyone know why it was removed?

When i was starting out, I was looking up strategy guides, and EVERYONE said Battlesphere was THE SHIT for a conjurer build. Im wondering why if it was so damn essential would the Devs remove it.

Also, i noticed the changelog didnt say "IB was removed from the game." It said that "It was replaced by Force Lance in the Conjurers Book"

Does this mean you can still find/get IB in some way? Maybe through Vehumet or Randomized Spellbooks?

Some info would be nice

[Arcvasti]

Battlesphere is terrible because you basically always want to have it active, a process which is incredibly tedious. The fact that it is overpowered just makes it more egregious. I think you might still be able to find it in the Book of Power, but I could be getting it confused with the other Iskenduren spell.

[Arcvasti]

i definitely pressed the modify button here and not the quote button

[Aoi]

Battlesphere is terrible because you basically always want to have it active, a process which is incredibly tedious.

But isn't that the case with a lot of spells? Basically all the defensive spells, at least. (Which, to some degree, has led me to wonder why there isn't an option to allow the auto-casting of buffs when no hostile is in sight.)

[Arcvasti]

Battlesphere is terrible because you basically always want to have it active, a process which is incredibly tedious.

But isn't that the case with a lot of spells? Basically all the defensive spells, at least. (Which, to some degree, has led me to wonder why there isn't an option to allow the auto-casting of buffs when no hostile is in sight.)

That's true, and a lot of them have been removed or modified lately. Stoneskin and Repel Missiles come to mind. It'd be nice if Deflect Missiles and Ozocubu's Armour could get similar treatments, but that will probably have to wait a few versions. Transmutations have kind of gotten a pass because most of them come with inherent drawbacks so that you don't want to have them active all the time, although its still kind of annoying casting them every important fight.

[EnigmaticHat]

I still think that long term enchantments should be cast out of your current MP and your max MP.  Then have an infinite duration outside combat and you get the max MP back when you turn them off.  If your buffs do get peeled away during combat, afterwards you have one button to recast all the enchantments you had on at a reduced MP cost, but you don't ever get the max MP back unless you actively turn off the buffs.

[FakerFangirl]

I just recast stuff like shroud of golubria and battlesphere whenever I am full mana and near an unexplored corner.

[Dwachs]

Got my first GrEE character up to some level. I have kind of cleared Lair (except for one level containing death yaks, torpor snails, and Kirke). I have got some narrow but nice selection of spells: found book of earth. Learned all spells from the starting book, then Fireball, Bolt of Fire, and Bolt of Magma. Also Freeze, which turned out to be very effective against hydras. Vehumet is currently offering Bolt of Cold.

I still have 6 spell slots open: Should I memorize Bolt of Cold (might not be available later..) or Iron Shot (which would be immediately castable)?

Also what is the use of Petrify? I used it against basilisks for flavor and then killed them with LRD. I have the impression that LRD on petrified stuff is rather ineffective. It was much more effective to kill the basilisks in melee with my whip of electrocution (without any weapon skill).

How is your approach to the skills Fighting & Armor: Is there a rule of thumb how/when to train them?

Currently I am on D:11. Should I turn to Orc? Go deeper? The equipment is lacking in any useful brands: no rF, rC, Sinv anywhere in the dungeon. Also no shield/buckler.