YAVP: 5-rune (with icy) DEGl^Uskayaw

[damerell]

http://crawl.montres.org.uk/morgue/dame ... 144900.txt

I didn't hope for much when the RNG handed me DEGl (although I'd already had OpAM to put me on a no-streak before deciding no, I didn't want to play AM just after winning AM), but I got this combo home first attempt.

It was slightly easier than one might expect because of the (new) Stoat Soupism that rapiers riposte, that their damage is more ruled by Dex than Str, and that you riposte on a block if you would have dodged. (It's not just a coincidence that vanilla added riposte-on-any-block to the Fencer's Gloves at the same time - I'd been meaning to do this for a while, and stole-and-edited their commit, including the bug in https://github.com/crawl/crawl/issues/3066 - also NB this is just in the development version now, you won't see it outside of crawl.montres.org.uk console play yet).

I took Usk on D:4 - I got DEFE home with Usk, and I hoped some spells would turn up - damage with spells and polish off with rapier was very effective on DEFE. This went less well than one might hope since the spells were quite reluctant to turn up, so I spent quite a lot of the early game poking things with a rapier and questioning my own judgement.

I learned Yara's on Lair:3 (although it took ages to get online, I think some time in the S branches), and Sticks to Snakes on Lair:6. Progress! Dipped into Snake, nearly died, went to Shoals, nearly died on Shoals:4. Learned LRD there since it was one of the few attack spells available. Back to Snake, nearly died _again_; finished D, went to Elf (nearly died to a DE annihilator), Abyssed by a Zot trap on Snake:2, nearly died in the Abyss, but then things got more under control and I learned Irradiate.

The rest of Elf was relatively OK - got the Cloud Mage on E:3 - and then to Vaults, learning IMB for those inconvenient monsters who don't stand next to walls and starting taking Fire Magic for Ignition. Depths after V:4, where it turned out I was not the only one who could play around with LRD: "HP: 2/135 [deep troll earth mage/blast of crystal shards (24)]". That Depths:2 was all green crystal and LRD made an enormous selection of holes in it, letting monsters get to the noise very easily; not ideal.

Learned Regeneration. To V:5 and found Punk, which eased the single-target damage problem no end. I had Ignition online for V:5 (initially only with brilliance) so went to Slime afterwards and blew up TRJ. Learned Aura of Abjuration (but use it once only since often it's preferable to use Ignition to make the summons burn the summoner) and Invisibility (which I, er, used twice and forgot about). Cleared the Vestibule - Geryon went down easily, but I had more trouble with Murray, fleeing the Vestibule to buff up and return.

Cocytus seemed like a good extended rune with Ignition. Learned IOOD and Dragon's Call, and with the rest of my kit working well I'd focus on Summonings for Dragon's Call. I used that twice but have no regrets about that XP investment - it dealt with OOFs up close where IOOD was no good. I'd never seen the coc_old Cocytus:7 layout before; nested circles with Antaeus in a little house in the middle. He kept coming out at inconvenient times so I had to keep running away from him, but eventually I'd polished off all his Ice Fiend buddies; I phantom mirrored him (disappointing duration with 20-odd Evo) and curared him (worked nicely, I could keep backing off and slapping him with IOOD).

Zot had a lot of orbs of fire. At range that was fine - IOOD - but as mentioned I badly needed Dragon's Call for the two casts I did make. Halfway down Zot I found Ring of Flames; I was the extremely rare character who wanted it, and I had it on for all the rest of Zot. The orbrun itself was not too bad - one panlord, who wasn't fast so I could easily evade.

The RNG gave me DrTm next. 2 runes and I haven't splatted, so maybe a princely 2-streak in the offing?

[Sprucery]

that their damage is more ruled by Dex than Str

How do Dex and Str affect weapon damage in Stoat generally? Compared to vanilla, where short/long blades and ranged combat uses Dex, other weapon types Str.

[damerell]

that their damage is more ruled by Dex than Str

How do Dex and Str affect weapon damage in Stoat generally? Compared to vanilla, where short/long blades and ranged combat uses Dex, other weapon types Str.

It's done by class of weapon; M&F are all STR (like vanilla), most weapons favour STR, riposteful long blades (all the one-handers except the broadsword (double sword) - the broadsword and the two-handers get bonus damage, the same they got in vanilla when riposte was removed) favour equal STR and DEX, short blades favour DEX. There's a bit of a bonus for having suitable stats so that, say, if you have STR 20, DEX 20, a "balanced" weapon is actually better than a mace, but - in an attempt to slightly differentiate M&F - if you really pump STR you can usually do better with M&F than anyone can with the other weapon classes, so M&F become the heavy-armour monster-whacker's weapon of choice. (M&F are arguably also distinct by virtue of the eveningstar being extremely good, the great mace being extremely common, and giant clubs for large species and suicidal formicids).

This is all pretty new and we're seeing how it pans out. One downside is even more puzzling over weapon numbers - is a +0 weapon where you have an effective damage stat of 32 better than a +1 one with the same base damage where you have an effective damage stat of 28? Who knows. I might see if we can pull forward vanilla's display of weapon damage rating.

[Sprucery]

I might see if we can pull forward vanilla's display of weapon damage rating.

That damage display is one of my favourite recent changes in DCSS. And if I understand correctly, it will be shown for unarmed as well in 0.30.