Slime Squisher
Posts: 419
Joined: Monday, 12th September 2016, 16:25
Thursday, 24th August 2017, 20:35
YAVP: 3-rune GrCj of Vehumet
http://crawl.xtahua.com/crawl/morgue/damerell/morgue-damerell-20170824-061802.txt
Hooray, won again! This was my fourth sequential attempt at a GrCJ after my HoGl, so I'm pretty pleased with my 40% win rate after Project Kitty. That said, you'll see from the log I was at 1HP at one point, so perhaps I shouldn't be too overconfident just yet (and of course measuring one's win rate immediately after a win in a short series of games does give a false impression).
This is also the first character I've played who relied primarily on magic for offense (if you don't count turning into a dragon with magic and then kicking bottom, which I don't). Indeed, this character relied essentially entirely on magic for offense, which was a ghastly mistake. At first I didn't train a weapon skill because I hadn't really found a sensible weapon, then because magic seemed to be taking care of things, Vehumet kept topping up mana, my staff of cold was jolly handy and then later unwielding it would give a cold vulnerability... also, being a gargoyle this character was so robust that in the rare cases when there were a few survivors I could just backpedal while regenerating mana.
Of course, backing up and regenerating doesn't work on the buffer Zot enemies, the relative MP boost from the Hat of Pondering and the ring of magical power decreases as the game goes on, and once you reach full piety Vehumet stops improving (yes, you get more mana for bigger kills but they also take more mana to kill; I mean the chance of getting replenishment stops increasing). I could easily have trained a respectable 1H weapon to mindelay (and I had some very good mace artifacts) with only a very marginal loss of spell skills.
I exacerbated this by being too eager to use potions of magic - I had a colossal stack of teleportation for most of the game and should have favoured teleporting first and drinking a potion of magic only as a last resort. The result was that halfway through Z:5 I had no potions left and had to rely on teleporting away to regenerate, exactly at the point when teleportation was unreliable. I had a horrible time getting to the Orb and could easily have lost the game to the first of two two-OOF fights, during which I also tangled with a ghost moth (fortunately I was well supplied with misc evokables, which were my only option to take it down - if I'd had any lousy weapon skill I could just have mashed it up with no trouble at all).
Guardian spirit probably didn't help there, although it was also very good with a gargoyle's low HP and my enormous mana reserve. I didn't really have any other very compelling amulets.
I owe a considerable debt to https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=23802, duvessa's spell guide. All my selections were made with an eye to the advice there.
I kept using Magic Dart for poking something at the edge of LOS. My first pick was Searing Ray, which long after the early levels was surprisingly effective against piles of badly-wounded thingies, but I could have done without it later. I next learned IMB, which was pretty handy for a while until Throw Icicle and Fireball superseded it. Then Sandblast, which again I'd use all game; against low-AC opponents it's astonishingly effective as long as you have stones (and since it wasn't my only offence, that was never an issue) and it was great for polishing off badly wounded survivors. I took Conjure Flame but didn't really get as much use out of it as I should.
I took the hat of Pondering when I got it, in spite of the speed penalty. Besides the MR which there was a real shortage of this game, the Int and MP were very handy to have. I learned Lightning Bolt and LRD; Lightning Bolt was essentially made obsolete by later developments and Bolt of Cold, and while I didn't get much mileage out of LRD it was astonishingly useful for blowing up statues.
In the bottom half of Lair I found a vault with a staff of cold, a manual of Ice Magic, and a book of assorted Ice spells. I decided I'd take the hint, and took Throw Icicle which became my workhorse for single targets from then until Iron Shot; I learned Fireball shortly afterwards to take care of crowds, and Ozo's Armour which I mostly used when stairdancing. I did decide to train up a shield for defensive purposes, and while the XP might have been better off elsewhere I wasn't complaining about the eventual +4 shield of reflection. I got the spriggan forest on Lair:6, which it turns out Fireball renders almost trivial.
I took Conjure Ball Lightning and, sigh, immediately changed my mind, amnesia-d it out, and took Bolt of Cold. This was useful all game, as you can imagine. I went to Orc, but it proved a bit hairy so I returned to the main Dungeon then found a jewellery shop on D:13 where I bought a +5 ring of intelligence and a ring of magical power. I'd basically wear these all game (I did replace the latter, but with a randart with magical power as its base item).
I finished Orc then went to Swamp, which was fine except that Bai Suzhen turned up. I phantom mirrored her dragon form; phantom mirrors are exceptionally useful even with no Evo, because while the clone doesn't last long it lasts long enough to tip the balance of the fight in your favour, as a rule. Spider was also OK - some ghost moths, but if you meet them when you have mana you can just nuke them with Fireball; the one in Zot:5 was such a problem because I was already dry when I met it. I got Iron Shot in Spider which would eventually replace Throw Icicle as my main attack, and Iskenderun's Battlesphere which I didn't really use - too fiddly, especially since ideally you want to keep casting it when exploring.
To Vaults, where I found the +0 cloak "Buso" {rF+ rC- Str+3 Dex+6 Stlth+}. This was a bit of a mixed blessing. It was nice to have the Str for better casting in armour and the extra EV, and I was really feeling the lack of any rF, but this did kind of lock me into the staff of cold to cover the vulnerability. I'd spend a lot of the later game wondering whether to change out of this (but where to get rF?) or what to do about rC if I swapped to a staff of earth (or conjurations, once I found it). This is why swapped my ring of magical power for the artifact ring with *Corrode, and I did also eventually settle on wearing body armour of cold resistance once my inherent MR got up high enough from gaining levels - for much of the game I'd use robe or leather armour of magic resistance.
I took Freezing Cloud, which is undeniably good but was a bit of an awkward fit with my other non-bolt area spell being Fireball. I mostly used it to lay down a cloud and retreat to deal with opponents one at a time. I remember having a bit of trouble with Boris on Vaults:3, but not the details.
After Vaults I didn't much fancy Depths, so I cleared out Elf. This was not really a problem except for the occasional antimagic flying weapon which had to be nuked with extreme prejudice. I got into a bit of trouble on the room of bastards and teleported - into the vault, as it turned out, but that was fine because all the surviving elves had run out of it to fight me.
Then I did do Depths. In retrospect this is where the deficiencies of having no weapon were becoming obvious, but it didn't really occur to me at the time. I had a bit of a worry on Depths:3 when I met Mara - unjustified, I just Iron Shotted him to death - but then Mennas. I used my favourite, the phantom mirror, and then spammed sacks of spiders - however, his Silence dropped and I could easily kill him then.
I planned to get my 3rd rune by Shattering V:5, but wanted a little more success rate - it was still yellow failure. I cleared out Crypt, which was no problem at all - I got a wizlab which turned out to be Zonguldrok's Shrine, which was a walkover at this stage. Shattering V:5 was then laughably easy, payback for the times I've sweated over it. I went to Zot:1, slapped my forehead, bought everything on my shopping list (mostly more phantom mirrors) and went back to Zot.
I didn't clear Zot but I did clear around every set of stairs to save difficulties later - no real problem given that I could blow up curse toes and the like with no difficulty. I saw an OOF on Z:4 which gave me an AC+2 mutation, which was nice of it.
As discussed above Z:5 was a ghastly struggle, but surmountable. I got a panlord on Z:5 on the orb run, who vexingly turned out to be able to abjure my backup plan of scrolls of summoning. I teleported away and used another set of stairs, which I'd also do to the two other panlords I met - one of whom I happened to kill before the teleport kicked in.
I found myself wishing autotravel could show you the intended path for a given destination (if it can, do tell me) - a lot of the time on the orbrun I wanted to go to the upstairs and rest until something showed up, but also to use the quickest route as autotravel would select.
- Code:
1480376 damerell the Ruinous (level 27, 156/176 HPs)
Began as a Gargoyle Conjurer on Aug 11, 2017.
Was the Champion of Vehumet.
Escaped with the Orb
... and 3 runes on Aug 24, 2017!
The game lasted 17:19:15 (111098 turns).
damerell the Ruinous (Gargoyle Conjurer) Turns: 111098, Time: 17:19:16
Health: 156/176 AC: 37 Str: 20 XL: 27
Magic: 42/68 EV: 19 Int: 37 God: Vehumet [******]
Gold: 3162 SH: 19 Dex: 16 Spells: 3/70 levels left
rFire + . . SeeInvis . a - staff of conjuration
rCold + . . Gourm . w - +5 shield {reflect}
rNeg + . . Faith . K - +2 robe {rC+}
rPois ∞ Spirit + z - +3 hat of Pondering {ponderous, MR+ MP+10 In
rElec + Reflect + C - +0 cloak "Buso" {rF+ rC- Str+3 Dex+6 Stlth+}
rCorr . Harm . u - +2 pair of gloves {Str+3}
MR +++.. I - +2 pair of boots
Stlth +......... P - amulet of guardian spirit
Regen 0.4/turn D - +5 ring of intelligence
MPRegen 0.5/turn y - ring "Fahuen" {*Corrode +Fly rC+ MP+9 Stlth-
@: flying, slow
A: big wings, icy blue scales 1, negative energy resistance 1, electricity
resistance, unbreathing, petrification resistance, rot immunity, subdued magic
1, AC +20
0: Orb of Zot
}: 3/15 runes: decaying, silver, gossamer
a: Stop Flying, Renounce Religion
You escaped.
You worshipped Vehumet.
Vehumet was exalted by your worship.
You were not hungry.
You visited 10 branches of the dungeon, and saw 52 of its levels.
You also visited: Labyrinth, Bailey, Ice Cave and Wizlab.
You collected 8144 gold pieces.
You spent 4982 gold pieces at shops.
Hooray, won again! This was my fourth sequential attempt at a GrCJ after my HoGl, so I'm pretty pleased with my 40% win rate after Project Kitty. That said, you'll see from the log I was at 1HP at one point, so perhaps I shouldn't be too overconfident just yet (and of course measuring one's win rate immediately after a win in a short series of games does give a false impression).
This is also the first character I've played who relied primarily on magic for offense (if you don't count turning into a dragon with magic and then kicking bottom, which I don't). Indeed, this character relied essentially entirely on magic for offense, which was a ghastly mistake. At first I didn't train a weapon skill because I hadn't really found a sensible weapon, then because magic seemed to be taking care of things, Vehumet kept topping up mana, my staff of cold was jolly handy and then later unwielding it would give a cold vulnerability... also, being a gargoyle this character was so robust that in the rare cases when there were a few survivors I could just backpedal while regenerating mana.
Of course, backing up and regenerating doesn't work on the buffer Zot enemies, the relative MP boost from the Hat of Pondering and the ring of magical power decreases as the game goes on, and once you reach full piety Vehumet stops improving (yes, you get more mana for bigger kills but they also take more mana to kill; I mean the chance of getting replenishment stops increasing). I could easily have trained a respectable 1H weapon to mindelay (and I had some very good mace artifacts) with only a very marginal loss of spell skills.
I exacerbated this by being too eager to use potions of magic - I had a colossal stack of teleportation for most of the game and should have favoured teleporting first and drinking a potion of magic only as a last resort. The result was that halfway through Z:5 I had no potions left and had to rely on teleporting away to regenerate, exactly at the point when teleportation was unreliable. I had a horrible time getting to the Orb and could easily have lost the game to the first of two two-OOF fights, during which I also tangled with a ghost moth (fortunately I was well supplied with misc evokables, which were my only option to take it down - if I'd had any lousy weapon skill I could just have mashed it up with no trouble at all).
Guardian spirit probably didn't help there, although it was also very good with a gargoyle's low HP and my enormous mana reserve. I didn't really have any other very compelling amulets.
I owe a considerable debt to https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=23802, duvessa's spell guide. All my selections were made with an eye to the advice there.
I kept using Magic Dart for poking something at the edge of LOS. My first pick was Searing Ray, which long after the early levels was surprisingly effective against piles of badly-wounded thingies, but I could have done without it later. I next learned IMB, which was pretty handy for a while until Throw Icicle and Fireball superseded it. Then Sandblast, which again I'd use all game; against low-AC opponents it's astonishingly effective as long as you have stones (and since it wasn't my only offence, that was never an issue) and it was great for polishing off badly wounded survivors. I took Conjure Flame but didn't really get as much use out of it as I should.
I took the hat of Pondering when I got it, in spite of the speed penalty. Besides the MR which there was a real shortage of this game, the Int and MP were very handy to have. I learned Lightning Bolt and LRD; Lightning Bolt was essentially made obsolete by later developments and Bolt of Cold, and while I didn't get much mileage out of LRD it was astonishingly useful for blowing up statues.
In the bottom half of Lair I found a vault with a staff of cold, a manual of Ice Magic, and a book of assorted Ice spells. I decided I'd take the hint, and took Throw Icicle which became my workhorse for single targets from then until Iron Shot; I learned Fireball shortly afterwards to take care of crowds, and Ozo's Armour which I mostly used when stairdancing. I did decide to train up a shield for defensive purposes, and while the XP might have been better off elsewhere I wasn't complaining about the eventual +4 shield of reflection. I got the spriggan forest on Lair:6, which it turns out Fireball renders almost trivial.
I took Conjure Ball Lightning and, sigh, immediately changed my mind, amnesia-d it out, and took Bolt of Cold. This was useful all game, as you can imagine. I went to Orc, but it proved a bit hairy so I returned to the main Dungeon then found a jewellery shop on D:13 where I bought a +5 ring of intelligence and a ring of magical power. I'd basically wear these all game (I did replace the latter, but with a randart with magical power as its base item).
I finished Orc then went to Swamp, which was fine except that Bai Suzhen turned up. I phantom mirrored her dragon form; phantom mirrors are exceptionally useful even with no Evo, because while the clone doesn't last long it lasts long enough to tip the balance of the fight in your favour, as a rule. Spider was also OK - some ghost moths, but if you meet them when you have mana you can just nuke them with Fireball; the one in Zot:5 was such a problem because I was already dry when I met it. I got Iron Shot in Spider which would eventually replace Throw Icicle as my main attack, and Iskenderun's Battlesphere which I didn't really use - too fiddly, especially since ideally you want to keep casting it when exploring.
To Vaults, where I found the +0 cloak "Buso" {rF+ rC- Str+3 Dex+6 Stlth+}. This was a bit of a mixed blessing. It was nice to have the Str for better casting in armour and the extra EV, and I was really feeling the lack of any rF, but this did kind of lock me into the staff of cold to cover the vulnerability. I'd spend a lot of the later game wondering whether to change out of this (but where to get rF?) or what to do about rC if I swapped to a staff of earth (or conjurations, once I found it). This is why swapped my ring of magical power for the artifact ring with *Corrode, and I did also eventually settle on wearing body armour of cold resistance once my inherent MR got up high enough from gaining levels - for much of the game I'd use robe or leather armour of magic resistance.
I took Freezing Cloud, which is undeniably good but was a bit of an awkward fit with my other non-bolt area spell being Fireball. I mostly used it to lay down a cloud and retreat to deal with opponents one at a time. I remember having a bit of trouble with Boris on Vaults:3, but not the details.
After Vaults I didn't much fancy Depths, so I cleared out Elf. This was not really a problem except for the occasional antimagic flying weapon which had to be nuked with extreme prejudice. I got into a bit of trouble on the room of bastards and teleported - into the vault, as it turned out, but that was fine because all the surviving elves had run out of it to fight me.
Then I did do Depths. In retrospect this is where the deficiencies of having no weapon were becoming obvious, but it didn't really occur to me at the time. I had a bit of a worry on Depths:3 when I met Mara - unjustified, I just Iron Shotted him to death - but then Mennas. I used my favourite, the phantom mirror, and then spammed sacks of spiders - however, his Silence dropped and I could easily kill him then.
I planned to get my 3rd rune by Shattering V:5, but wanted a little more success rate - it was still yellow failure. I cleared out Crypt, which was no problem at all - I got a wizlab which turned out to be Zonguldrok's Shrine, which was a walkover at this stage. Shattering V:5 was then laughably easy, payback for the times I've sweated over it. I went to Zot:1, slapped my forehead, bought everything on my shopping list (mostly more phantom mirrors) and went back to Zot.
I didn't clear Zot but I did clear around every set of stairs to save difficulties later - no real problem given that I could blow up curse toes and the like with no difficulty. I saw an OOF on Z:4 which gave me an AC+2 mutation, which was nice of it.
As discussed above Z:5 was a ghastly struggle, but surmountable. I got a panlord on Z:5 on the orb run, who vexingly turned out to be able to abjure my backup plan of scrolls of summoning. I teleported away and used another set of stairs, which I'd also do to the two other panlords I met - one of whom I happened to kill before the teleport kicked in.
I found myself wishing autotravel could show you the intended path for a given destination (if it can, do tell me) - a lot of the time on the orbrun I wanted to go to the upstairs and rest until something showed up, but also to use the quickest route as autotravel would select.
Last edited by damerell on Friday, 25th August 2017, 20:56, edited 1 time in total.
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