My best run by far, ended by a death yak

[germanwizard]

So, up until this last run I never got past DL-7, and I was kicking ass, seriously thinking I could possibly win... good items, spells, the perfect god, and awesome luck at mutation roullete. Then I got a miscast ( 1% failure btw) followed by 2 gores in a row by a fucking death yak and died.. This game is gonna put fist sized holes in my walls

Heres my morque.. RIP Merlin

  Code:


87502 merlin the Eclecticist (level 15, -4/82 (86) HPs)
             Began as a Deep Elf Conjurer on Jan 15, 2015.
             Was a High Priest of Vehumet.
             Slain by a death yak (26 damage)
             ... on Level 5 of the Lair of Beasts.
             The game lasted 06:10:49 (33894 turns).

merlin the Eclecticist (Deep Elf Conjurer)         Turns: 33894, Time: 06:10:49

HP  -4/82 (86)   AC 13     Str  8      XL: 15   Next: 43%
MP  13/40        EV 12     Int 27      God: Vehumet [*****.]
Gold 755         SH 13     Dex 16      Spells: 10 memorised,  7 levels left

rFire  . . .     SeeInvis +     f - +9 short sword of Begraelime {flame, Str+3}
rCold  + + .     Clarity  +     t - +2 robe {rC+ rF+}
rNeg   + . .     rCorr    .     A - +0 large shield
rPois  +         rRot     .     o - +0 helmet
rElec  .         Spirit   .     Z - +2 cloak
SustAb .         Warding  .     (no gloves)
rMut   .         Stasis   +     u - +0 pair of boots
Gourm  .                        J - amulet of stasis
MR     ++...                    S - ring of Dal The {Ice rPois rN+ MR+}
                                n - ring of see invisible

@: very slightly contaminated, very resistant to hostile enchantments,
unstealthy
A: hooves 1, rough black scales 1, agile 1, clarity, evolution 1
a: Renounce Religion


You were on level 5 of the Lair of Beasts.
You worshipped Vehumet.
Vehumet was extremely pleased with you.
You were hungry.

You visited 3 branches of the dungeon, and saw 21 of its levels.

You collected 815 gold pieces.
You spent 60 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 f - the +9 short sword of Begraelime (weapon) {flame, Str+3}
   (You took it off an orc wizard on level 7 of the Dungeon)   
   
   It emits flame when wielded, causing extra injury to most foes and up to
   double damage against particularly susceptible opponents. Big, fiery blades
   are also staple armaments of hydra-hunters.
   
   It affects your strength (+3).
 h - a +2 short sword of holy wrath
Missiles
 X - a throwing net (quivered)
Armour
 j - a cursed +0 pair of gloves
 o - a +0 helmet (worn)
 t - a +2 robe of resistance (worn)
 u - a +0 pair of boots (worn)
 A - a +0 large shield (worn)
 Q - a +0 pair of gloves
 Z - a +2 cloak (worn)
Magical devices
 i - a wand of paralysis (11)
 q - a wand of lightning (4)
 G - a wand of polymorph (9)
 T - a wand of slowing (8)
 U - a wand of invisibility (6)
 V - a wand of fireball (6)
 W - a wand of teleportation (4)
Comestibles
 r - 3 fruits
 w - 12 meat rations
 E - a chunk of adder flesh
 I - a beef jerky
Scrolls
 c - 2 scrolls of remove curse
 e - a scroll of enchant weapon
 g - 4 scrolls of recharging
 s - 3 scrolls of fear
 x - 2 scrolls of identify
 C - a scroll of enchant armour
 D - 3 scrolls of teleportation
 H - a scroll of vulnerability
 K - a scroll of magic mapping
Jewellery
 d - a +3 ring of protection
 n - a ring of see invisible (left hand)
 J - an amulet of stasis (around neck)
 S - the ring of Dal The (right hand) {Ice rPois rN+ MR+}
   (You found it on level 6 of the Dungeon)   
   
   [ring of ice]
   
   It enhances your ice magic, and weakens your fire magic.
   It makes you vulnerable to fire.
   It protects you from cold.
   It protects you from poison.
   It protects you from negative energy.
   It affects your resistance to hostile enchantments.
Potions
 l - a potion of cancellation
 p - 2 potions of might
 v - 7 potions of curing
 z - 4 potions of restore abilities
 B - 3 potions of haste
 L - a potion of flight
Books
 k - a book of Dreams   
   
   Spells                             Type                      Level
   Ensorcelled Hibernation            Hexes/Ice                    2
   Flight                             Charms/Air                   3
   Phase Shift                        Translocation                5
   Shadow Creatures                   Summoning                    5
   Mass Confusion                     Hexes                        6
   Darkness                           Hexes                        7
 y - a book of Frost   
   
   Spells                             Type                      Level
   Freeze                             Ice                          1
   Throw Frost                        Conjuration/Ice              2
   *Ozocubu's Armour                  Charms/Ice                   3
   *Throw Icicle                      Conjuration/Ice              4
   Summon Ice Beast                   Ice/Summoning                4
   Condensation Shield                Ice                          4
 N - a book of Annihilations   
   
   Spells                             Type                      Level
   Poison Arrow                       Conjuration/Poison           6
   Chain Lightning                    Conjuration/Air              8
   Lehudib's Crystal Spear            Conjuration/Earth            8
   *Glaciate                          Conjuration/Ice              9
   Fire Storm                         Conjuration/Fire             9
Magical staves
 b - an uncursed staff of wizardry
Miscellaneous
 M - a phial of floods


   Skills:
 + Level 7.4 Fighting
 - Level 5.2 Short Blades
 - Level 2.8 Armour
 - Level 6.4 Dodging
 - Level 2.4 Stealth
 - Level 6.8 Shields
 - Level 18.0 Spellcasting
 - Level 14.2 Conjurations
 - Level 6.2 Hexes
 - Level 5.1 Charms
 * Level 10.9 Ice Magic


You had 7 spell levels left.
You knew the following spells:

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Failure   Level  Hunger
a - Magic Dart            Conj           ####         1%          1    None
b - Searing Ray           Conj           ######       1%          2    None
c - Iskenderun's Mystic   Conj           #######.     1%          4    None
d - Fulminant Prism       Conj/Hex       ######....   1%          4    None
e - Iskenderun's Battles  Conj/Chrm      ######..     3%          5    None
f - Ozocubu's Armour      Chrm/Ice       #######.     2%          3    None
g - Throw Icicle          Conj/Ice       #######.     1%          4    None
i - Sticky Flame          Conj/Fire      ####....     3%          4    None
j - Orb of Destruction    Conj           #######...   21%         7    #####..
k - Glaciate              Conj/Ice       #######...   100%        9    #######


Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (15/15)            Temple (1/1) D:5             Orc (0/4) D:10
   Lair (5/8) D:9          Vaults (0/5) D:13       
 Swamp: Lair:3-6    Shoals: Lair:3-6     Snake: Lair:3-6    Spider: Lair:3-6
Depths: D:15       

Altars:
Ashenzari
Cheibriados
Dithmenos
Elyvilon
Fedhas
Kikubaaqudgha
Makhleb
Nemelex Xobeh
Okawaru
Qazlal
Sif Muna
Trog
Vehumet
Xom
Yredelemnul
Zin
The Shining One

Shops:
D:5 [   D:6 !   D:12 (

Annotations:
D:3 exclusion: phantom


Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You have large cloven feet.
You are partially covered in rough black scales (AC +4, Dex -1).
You are agile. (Dex +2)
You possess an exceptional clarity of mind.
You evolve.


Message History

You start resting.
An eight-headed hydra comes into view.
An eight-headed hydra is nearby!
You climb downwards. The death yak gores you!
There is a stone staircase leading up here.
Aiming: Orb of Destruction
Press: ? - help, Shift-Dir - straight line, f - death yak
Aim: a death yak (heavily wounded)
You miscast Orb of Destruction.
You are very lightly contaminated with residual magic.
There is a sudden explosion of magical energy!
The explosion engulfs you!
* * * LOW HITPOINT WARNING * * *
The explosion engulfs the death yak.
The death yak is almost dead.
You are feeling hungry.
The death yak gores you!
* * * LOW HITPOINT WARNING * * *
You feel much better. The death yak gores you!!
You die...

What do you guys think, I coulda won it the way things were going, huh?

[McGeekster]

Nice run! For the most part, it was rather well for someone still beginning the game. I have a few tips for you though, and some things to congratulate you on.

  Code:

A - +0 large shield

You are playing a caster. While shields, especially large ones at later levels, are great defensively, they hinder spellcasting and dodging greatly, which are likely going to be your best aspects of a DECj. Also, large shields need 25 levels in shields to get rid of the spellcasting penalty, so I don't recommend using them until later. Stick with bucklers, if any shields, as they only need 5 levels.

Your skill training is pretty straightforward, and I recommend next time you play to keep up something similar to this. You should, however, put slightly less into spellcasting, which only really increases your mana and slightly increases spellpower, and training more practical skills like dodging and short blades, in this case. On top of that all, Deep Elves are HORRIBLE at melee. They are AMAZING at spellcasting. *Hint Hint*

Great spell list! Not much I can say there, except that if you had found a book with blink, or another good utility spell (swiftness, summon butterflies, etc.) it probably would have saved your character here.

Looks like you died to miscast damage. Not much to say on that, except that if the spell is dangerous to cast, don't cast it in dangerous situations. Death yaks are called Death yaks for a reason.

Learn flight. Great spell for escaping those nasty monsters by flying over deep water, lava, or other hazardous terrain. And it increases your EV! (I think)

Anyway, nice try on your best run yet. If you like builds like the one you have here, play a merfolk gladiator/skald and go with a regeneration fighter type playing style. My first win was a MfGl. Haste is amaze-balls, so, yeah. And as for hating Death yaks, don't worry, we all do. My first ever run (DDFi) was ended abruptly by the hulkish brutes.

Happy crawling!

[germanwizard]

awesome, thanks so much for the tips!! I didnt know that about shields, all I saw was that it only increased my spells failure rate >5 % so i figured it wasnt a big deal. As for weapons, I had problems all game with running out of mana, any idea on how to combat that? My pool didnt seem to want to increase after 40 :/

[McGeekster]

40 mana is a lot. Just make sure you rest in between fights and you should be fantastic. Also, Vehumet grants mana upon killing units, so spells like fireball, bolt of *anything*, and other aoe/piercing spells are good for keeping mana pools high. It is always good to have a melee backup on any character, and yours was great in this situation. Also, melee creatures that don't need to be killed with spells. It just helps save time. Potion of magic restores mana, if you didn't already know, so thats a good item in case of emergency. Other than that, try the spell Sublimation of Blood, it converts a small amount of hp to mana, which is much more important as a spellcaster. And maybe staff of channeling if you're desperate. Hope this helps

[tasonir]

  Code:

Aim: a death yak (heavily wounded)
You miscast Orb of Destruction.
You are very lightly contaminated with residual magic.
There is a sudden explosion of magical energy!
The explosion engulfs you!

Orb was at 21% miscast, which is a bit too high to be using safely. Death yaks are very dangerous lair monsters, probably the most dangerous thing you'll find there on most runs (aside from uniques). The biggest asset you have is space - if you don't let them get in melee range you can kite them back to stairs and escape. Pulling apart the herd is a very critical skill.

Aside from the large shield already mentioned, I'd warn you not to try to rush to level 9 spells this early on, they aren't much better than level 5-6 spells. Because you're a deep elf you can justify getting level 9 spells (on most other races it isn't as valuable) but you still don't want to do it by lair. Learn some support magic, like phase shift which you had found, and focus on getting your level 4-7 spells reliable and at a good spell power. You could have trained conjurations a bit more to finish getting orb of destruction online, although I think if you took off the large shield that would probably have solved most of the problem immediately. Slightly higher dodging might be helpful, but as McGeekster said, your skill training is pretty good so don't panic there

[Aule]

IMO, memorizing Glaciate that early was a waste, since it wouldn't be castable for a long time. Shadow creatures is a nice spell that I often use with my blasters, especially early, and I'm sure you could think of others to spend the points on. Death yaks are nasty buggers for a 15, and I'm wary of them with a Wz, but I don't know what you'd use as a Cj to deal with them. (As a Wz, I use conjure flame.)

[Siegurt]

IMO, memorizing Glaciate that early was a waste, since it wouldn't be castable for a long time. Shadow creatures is a nice spell that I often use with my blasters, especially early, and I'm sure you could think of others to spend the points on. Death yaks are nasty buggers for a 15, and I'm wary of them with a Wz, but I don't know what you'd use as a Cj to deal with them. (As a Wz, I use conjure flame.)

Typically my Cj get them one on one and use IMB+battlesphere to take them out.

[damiac]

Death yaks are really dangerous, but also, simple to get away from. I do find them a good gauge of how powerful my character is. If I can just tab down death yaks in lair, I know I'm going to have a pretty easy time.

[McGeekster]

Death yaks are really dangerous, but also, simple to get away from. I do find them a good gauge of how powerful my character is. If I can just tab down death yaks in lair, I know I'm going to have a pretty easy time.

If you are trying to tab Death yaks, I worry for you.

[damiac]

Hey, the first couple swings let me know how well it's going to go, but with well armored character with a decent two hander I've been able to do it. Like I said, it takes a pretty strong character to be able to do that.

[McGeekster]

I'm sure this is probably a redundant statement, but as damage is calculated via a dice roll, only doing a couple of tabs will not really give you an accurate idea of how the fight will end. Typically, even on melee focused characters, you have to be a very high level to whack Death yaks to death, and you usually aren't that far in experience when you encounter them. But I'll admit that I do the whole couple tab thing myself, and it's a habit I'm trying to break. So much hydra.

[germanwizard]

Death yaks are really dangerous, but also, simple to get away from. I do find them a good gauge of how powerful my character is. If I can just tab down death yaks in lair, I know I'm going to have a pretty easy time.

If you are trying to tab Death yaks, I worry for you.

Awesome advice guys, thanks so much for the quick replies
One more thing, what is tabbing? Oh and also, are there any ways I can increase my movement speed? I had troubled running away from yaks as they just attacked me while i was running :/

[McGeekster]

what is tabbing?

Auto combat, when you press the tab key on the upper left of the keyboard. It's useful for taking out weaker enemies quickly, but can be dangerous if it becomes a habit. Beware the tab key...

[dornbeast]

...are there any ways I can increase my movement speed? I had trouble running away from yaks as they just attacked me while i was running :/

An incomplete list includes the hard-to-find boots of running, haste (potion, wand, or spell), berserk (potion, evocable, or worship Trog), and cheating (teleport or controlled blink).

[Konedar]

Death yaks are really dangerous, but also, simple to get away from. I do find them a good gauge of how powerful my character is. If I can just tab down death yaks in lair, I know I'm going to have a pretty easy time.

If you are trying to tab Death yaks, I worry for you.

Awesome advice guys, thanks so much for the quick replies
One more thing, what is tabbing? Oh and also, are there any ways I can increase my movement speed? I had troubled running away from yaks as they just attacked me while i was running :/

Yaks have movespeed 10, so same as your Elf, but monster movement is slightly randomized. So yak movement sometime can take 0.9 turn or 1.1 turn. If it takes 0.9 turn then it can act before you move again and can attack you. For same reason sometime you can get a tile space distance between you and the chasing monster.
(But on the long distance the movespeed avarage will be exactly 10 because if once it takes longer then there is higher chance that it will take shorter to compensate. WRONG)
I probably didn't explain it best (maybe not even 100% correct, it's just from experience) but you can probably find it somewhere on the wiki or db.

edit: (I was actually curios to check the correct data myself so I paste it here:)
Energy randomisation
1. Every time a monster makes a movement (i.e. not an attack/spell), the amount of time taken to do its turn has a 1/3 chance of being 0.1 turns slower, a 1/3 chance of being 0.1 turns quicker and a 1/3 chance of being the normal amount. Over time, these 0.1s add up or cancel out to cause 'double moves' or 'lost moves'.
2.The purpose of this feature is to make pillar dancing more unpredictable. When a monster gains/loses a move is when it is most likely to lose/gain it again. The worst case for a 1.0 move delay monster and player is a double move every 10 turns.
3.You can still dance nearly as easily with anything other than a pillar.

[Roderic]

seriously thinking I could possibly win

This was the first step to your later defeat.

Overconfidence kills more than anything.

[mps]

For the record, I tab death yaks.

[tasonir]

I also tab death yaks with the caveat that this is after seperating them/getting into a choke point. Tabbing 1-2 death yaks is usually possible on strong characters, tabbing 4 never is (in lair - you can probably tab 4 in depths).

[Sandman25]

It's interesting to see so many players tab death yaks with DECj of Vehumet

[Sprucery]

It's interesting to see so many players tab death yaks with DECj of Vehumet :)

Shouldn't be a problem if you're properly hybridized ;)