Blood for the blood god! First win! MiBe

[magpie]

1806421 Urgi the Conqueror (level 27, 212/273 HPs)
Began as a Minotaur Berserker on Nov 19, 2015.
Was the Champion of Trog.
Escaped with the Orb
... and 3 runes on Nov 21, 2015!

The game lasted 07:38:59 (64341 turns).

Urgi the Conqueror (Minotaur Berserker) Turns: 64341, Time: 07:38:59

Health: 212/273 AC: 40 Str: 31 XL: 27
Magic: 1/1 EV: 27 Int: 4 God: Trog [******]
Gold: 3854 SH: 30 Dex: 17 Spells: 0 memorised, 26 levels left

rFire + + + SeeInvis + O - +8 demon whip (elec)
rCold + . . Clarity . Z - +6 plate armour {rF+}
rNeg + . . SustAb . r - +3 large shield "Syfawixo" {rPois rCorr}
rPois + Gourm . V - +0 mask of the Dragon {MR+ Slay+3 SInv}
rElec . Spirit . p - +2 cloak {MR+}
rCorr + Warding + I - +2 pair of gloves
rMut . Stasis . H - +4 pair of boots of Perpetual Drought {rPois rF+ Dex+3}
MR +++++ X - macabre finger necklace {Ward rN+}
Stlth .......... U - ring "Siophia" {rF+ rC+ MR+ MP-9 EV+5}
f - ring of protection from magic
R - ring "Ymnaq" {rPois rF+ Slay+2}

@: almost entirely resistant to hostile enchantments, extremely unstealthy
A: retaliatory headbutt, horns 2, deterioration 1, no device heal 2
a: Burn Spellbooks, Berserk, Trog's Hand, Brothers in Arms, Renounce Religion
0: Orb of Zot
}: 3/15 runes: serpentine, barnacled, silver


You escaped.
You worshipped Trog.
Trog was exalted by your worship.
You were not hungry.

You visited 9 branches of the dungeon, and saw 55 of its levels.
You visited the Abyss 2 times.
You visited 2 bazaars.
You also visited: Ice Cave, Volcano and Wizlab.

You collected 8540 gold pieces.
You spent 4686 gold pieces at shops.

[magpie]

I went Snake, Shoals, Vault 1-4. Depths 1-5, Vault 5, Elf, and then down for the Orb.

There were only 3 times when I came very close to dying this game ... once in Shoals versus a pack of aquamancers and impalers (that water bolt thing is pretty brutal), once when I was Abyssed by a distortion weapon on Zot:1, and once on the way back up with the Orb when I was stuck between a pack of holy creatures (not sure how they showed up) and a Pan lord which had a very brutal melee attack. Good thing I blinked when I did!

But more or less, this game was pretty smooth sailing, thanks to some very big lucky streaks (a very, very early Ring of Evasion +5 stands out, as does the 5 acquirement scrolls I found along the way) and my taking my time a bit more time while playing. The fact that I was absolutely drowning in resistances (I had access to pretty much every resistance, and maxed out resistances with some gear swaps) really helped!

But honestly ... Zot wasn't too bad at all. I guess this character just had enough defences (Orbs of Fire take a pounding, but they weren't doing too much damage through my rF+++) and killing power to kill his way through.

Oh ... I also didn't use Brothers in Arms at all during this game, although I used Trog's Hand a lot. It's a really good ability, especially when you're on maxed-out piety, which isn't hard.

[njvack]

Congrats!

BiA is also really insanely great.

[Mattchew]

Congrats. That's a nice fast first win, both on time and turncount.

[Airwolf]

Congrats! Nice job!

Definitely use Brothers in Arms next time. It's very, very strong.

[magpie]

Thanks a lot. I did a lot of fighting in corridors and in doorways, which isn't my usual style, but I had converted to M&F pretty early in the game after starting as an Axe user. I have gotten a real liking for M&F as a weapon class! Demon whips are especially brutal - quick (which also increases the damage I was doing from the weapon brand and my auxilliary attacks), and they do pretty good damage once you've gotten some Slaying bonuses. They're much better in the game than they are on paper, especially when compared to eveningstars and broad axes.

But really ... all 3 times I nearly died, it was basically my own fault:

1: In Shoals, I ran into that pack after I had gotten the rune, and was just exploring everything on the level for a bit more XP.
2: Does Distortion weaponry check MR? I had gone into Zot with less MR than I had access to.
3: I saw the pack of holy creatures on the run back to D:1 with the Orb, and thought, 'Angels, eh? I can take them, no problem.' And I would have, too, if not for the Pan lord who showed up and starting beating me senseless. I had to unequip a ring with -Tele I was wearing, and blink ... and even then, I was lucky to land close enough to up stairs to be able to go up them without being followed.

I'm pretty well acquainted with the roguelike notion that 'if you die, it's almost always your own fault' from playing ADoM, which I'm much better at (3 wins so far), so I'm also not bad at Dungeon Crawl for a relative noob. Mostly, it's my own impatience that sinks me.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I also did Orc and Lair in this game, although Orc didn't give anything good except for the XP for slaughtering all the inhabitants. Orc was actually also pretty easy this game - Saint Roka didn't generate, and the packs weren't as harsh as they often can be.

[WingedEspeon]

btw 3 MR+ items is all you need at Xl 27 to be completely immune to any hex even with Mi MR per level and without trogs hand, so you could have swaped the plain MR ring for something else. All of your other MR+ items had a bunch of good stuff other than MR+ making them very good.

clearing a rune level after you have the rune isn't necessarily a bad idea, just be careful when doing so.

Distortion does not check MR.

The normal path though the dungeon is something like D untill lair, lair 1-8, find orc, orc 1-4, finish D, get two lair runes(easiest to hardest is normally considered swamp, spider, snake, shoals. rPois help a lot for everything that isn't shoals (but isn't strictly necessary), and good MR is highly recommended for shoals. Repels missiles is also great for shoals if you can cast spells.), vaults 1-4, Depths 1-5, get third rune (normally abyss, slime, or vaults), zot 1-5, get orb, leave. Elf 1-2 is usually doable after 1-2 runes and elf 3 is probably doable before depths if you have high MR, otherwise it can be nice to get some loot for zot.