YAVP!: GrFi Oka. Was CiP: Seeking advice before Zot

[Mihus]

Hi all,

[Edit, oh, sorry, I just saw that I should have posted this in the wrong forum , forgive me, it must have been that orb of fire] (mod edit: moved to characters in progress)

I am playing a promising Gargoyle Fighter of Okawaru and would like some advice from you. I have cleared Zot:1 and just downstairs, in Zot:2 I found an orb of fire, so I just fled away and that made me stop and think.

For some reason my browser, my Spanish keyboard layout or something intercepts the '#' char, so I cannot post a dump, but I will copy the relevant pieces of info at the end of the post:

My doubts are:
I have a not so bad weapon (+6 +7 morningstar of Holy Wrath), and I have stashed a seemingly much better +11 +4 flail (crush, CONTAM, rElec rC+ Int+2 Stealth+) that already got me a mutation early on when I unwielded it after ID (I quaffed a cure mutation potion for that). Also I have a +5 +5 flail {speed Int+2}. I wonder if wearing a resist mutation amulet I would get substantial benefits from the Contam +11 +4 flail.
I have a cure mutation potion stashed and can buy another in a shop, by the way.

I have cleared Vaults, Swamp, Spider's nest, Dungeon, Depths, Orcish, Lair & Hall of blades (that didn't give me any interesting weapon).

I don't know wether to clear elf:1 and elf:2 or crypt up to 4. Would it be worth to switch to TSO, get piety with an amulet of faith in the crypt and then go to clear rest of ZOT? I only want to do a 3-rune run, and I already have the runes, so I don't know if a switch is worth for such a short time and also considering I already have a holy weapon. Would it be worth to clear elf or crypt with the hope of finding a better weapon? Also, I only have a +3 gold dragon armour that I got from a dragon, Okawaru didn't got me anything better for that slot.

Also, in terms of training, I have been training Translocations in order to get a reasonable chance of casting Blink (currently 72% fail). I think Shields, maces and armour skills are high enough. Probably I should rise fighting more. No clue, I am totally inexperienced in the late game. I only ascended once two or three years ago, and the game was quite different. Not sure of the version I played, but there were no octopus in that game .

Apart from that, I have a ring of teleport control and another of {+/*Tele Str+3 Dex+5 Int-4} that make a nice combo for escaping. About resistances, by switching rings, I can have rF+++, rC+++, rN+++ and MR+++--. also rMut. I think I am fine here if I micromanage the jewelry. I am sorry about the lack of a dump, I hope this is enough for getting some advice!

Mihus the Shatterer (Gargoyle Fighter) Turns: 97814, Time: 11:25:34
HP 180/180 AC 65 Str 31 XL: 26 Next: 13%
MP 37/37 EV 6 Int 9 God: Okawaru [*****.]
Gold 5646 SH 50 Dex 13 Spells: 1 memorised, 32 levels left

rFire + + + SeeInvis + v - +6,+7 morningstar (holy)
rCold + . . Clarity . h - +3 gold dragon armour
rNeg + + . Conserve + f - +1 large shield {reflect}
rPois + rCorr + R - +0 helmet of the Peasants {rN+ SInv}
rElec + rRot + W - +2 cloak {rCorr, Cons}
SustAb . . Spirit . E - +2 pair of gloves {Str+3}
rMut + Warding . A - +2 pair of boots {rF+}
Saprov . . . Stasis . t - amulet of resist mutation
MR +.... b - +6 ring of protection
Y - ring of protection from fire

@: somewhat resistant to hostile enchantments, extremely unstealthy
A: able to fly continuously, large and strong wings, life protection 1,
electricity resistance, unbreathing, petrification resistance, AC +19
a: Fly, Heroism, Finesse, Renounce Religion
}: 3/15 runes: decaying, silver, gossamer

a - Fighting 22.6 +1
h - Spellcasting 4.8 -1
b - Maces & Flails 22.6 +1
i * Translocations 6.9 100% -1
c - Unarmed Combat 0.0 +1
j - Invocations 7.4 +1
d - Throwing 0.0 0
k - Evocations 12.0 0
l - Stealth 0.0 +2
e - Armour 20.9 +1
f - Dodging 10.0 -2
g - Shields 20.0 +1

[zardo]

I have a not so bad weapon (+6 +7 morningstar of Holy Wrath), and I have stashed a seemingly much better +11 +4 flail (crush, CONTAM, rElec rC+ Int+2 Stealth+) that already got me a mutation early on when I unwielded it after ID (I quaffed a cure mutation potion for that). Also I have a +5 +5 flail {speed Int+2}. I wonder if wearing a resist mutation amulet I would get substantial benefits from the Contam +11 +4 flail.
I have a cure mutation potion stashed and can buy another in a shop, by the way.

Well, first of all, contamination mutations have a strong chance to penetrate rMut. That would be okay if you had something like the plutonium sword that you''ll never actually want to unwield, but I'm not even sure what you see in that flail. The morningstar is better in most situations regardless of CONTAM, and while it might be nice to swap for resistances you can't really because - wait a minute - CONTAM. The speed flail is actually much more interesting - that one might be a step up.

[Magipi]

I think you should drop both flails - those are early midgame weapons at best. The morningstar is much better (and it will be awesome against liches and tentacled monstrosities). But don't you have a demon whip or eveningstar somewhere in the dungeon?

[DracheReborn]

With your AC and rF+++, you probably didn't need to run from the orb of fire. I don't think it can kill you, though it might give you a bad mut or 2.

+7 morningstar is an ok weapon. Don't switch to flail, it's a bad base type. Best 1-handed M&F are demon whips and eveningstars, have you found any? If not then morningstar is next best.

Also, in terms of training, I have been training Translocations in order to get a reasonable chance of casting Blink (currently 72% fail). I think Shields, maces and armour skills are high enough. Probably I should rise fighting more.

Your spell failure rate is high because of GDA and large shield. Personally, I probably wouldn't bother to cast on this character. You might train Invo a bit more (to improve Finesse fail rate), or Evo a bit more (assuming you have Evo items like phial of floods or lamp of fire), or getting more Fighting is also good.

You probably have too much M&F skill, and you actually need 25 Shield skill to eliminate penalties from large shield (which makes large shield stupidly expensive to use). But if the penalties aren't bothering you, don't train Shields any more.

About resistances, by switching rings, I can have rF+++, rC+++, rN+++ and MR+++--. also rMut.

You only really need 1 pip each of rF and rC, so I think you are more than fine. Keeping your MR high is probably more important, especially when you're facing enemies like ancient liches.

[Mihus]

Thanks for the advices!

I think you should drop both flails - those are early midgame weapons at best. The morningstar is much better (and it will be awesome against liches and tentacled monstrosities). But don't you have a demon whip or eveningstar somewhere in the dungeon?

+7 morningstar is an ok weapon. Don't switch to flail, it's a bad base type. Best 1-handed M&F are demon whips and eveningstars, have you found any? If not then morningstar is next best.

I was not considering demon whips because I read that they have a Str/Dex weight of 20%, while morningstars have 80%, and since I have much more Str than Dex, I thought it would be better to go with the morningstar. I have stashed a +1 +0 demon whip of freezing and a vampiric demon whip. About eveningstars... I have been looking for one for a long time, with no luck.

Your spell failure rate is high because of GDA and large shield. Personally, I probably wouldn't bother to cast on this character. You might train Invo a bit more (to improve Finesse fail rate), or Evo a bit more (assuming you have Evo items like phial of floods or lamp of fire), or getting more Fighting is also good.

You probably have too much M&F skill, and you actually need 25 Shield skill to eliminate penalties from large shield (which makes large shield stupidly expensive to use). But if the penalties aren't bothering you, don't train Shields any more.

Finesse is at at 8% and not having much problems with it. I think I will go for evo and fighting, and perhaps a bit of Invo, ok. Thanks!

[Abominae]

I was not considering demon whips because I read that they have a Str/Dex weight of 20%, while morningstars have 80%, and since I have much more Str than Dex, I thought it would be better to go with the morningstar. I have stashed a +1 +0 demon whip of freezing and a vampiric demon whip. About eveningstars... I have been looking for one for a long time, with no luck.

A Vampiric Demon Whip is legitimately one of the best weapons in the game. Strength and Dexterity weighting should have zero impact on your weapon choice.

[Magipi]

In a 3-rune win, you should absolutely never switch gods. Don't bother with Elf and Crypt either. Take your best demon whip, enchant it, then go win. (And don't forget to haste or finesse yourself against orbs).

[Mihus]

Yay! That GrFi did it! I was very close to death in Zot:4. There was a welcome comitee with two tentacled monstruosities which constricted me in the stairs, a bunch of draconians, dragons and some moths of wrath. The three stairs were very close to that big group. I teleported and lured one enemy at a time to a corner of the map until the stairs were clear again.

The vampiric demon whip (enchanted finally to +6 +1) worked very well until the end. Thanks for that. Also for mentioning the phial of floods. I had stashed a fan of gales that allowed me to escape from a pretty bad situation once. I just didn't remember about it.

Fire orbs were easier than I remembered, I fought one with an ancient lich very near and they combined took only like 30% of my hp. Maybe I was lucky with that one. Still, stairs were pretty close.

I imagine that my player stats will appear sometime here: http://crawl.akrasiac.org/scoring/players/mihus.html so you can have a look at the dump if you like. This was my first webtiles game (very lucky account! maybe I was more cautious because of playing webtiles and having some lag), so I have no previous history in the server.

Edit: here is the dump: http://crawl.akrasiac.org/rawdata/Mihus ... 210356.txt

[Magipi]

Gratz!

For the future: next time don't fight an orb of fire and an ancient lich at once

[DracheReborn]

Congrats! 100% win rate

Well, 64 AC would make a lot of enemies seem easy, but yeah, probably not the best idea