YA CIP, MuWi, nice start --> YAVP!

[Mental Mouse]

Herman.txt

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So, real nice start for my next Mummy Wizard -- found an early leather armor of fire resistance, short sword of venom, and a +2 helmet of see invisible. Got some nice stuff from an Ice cave, before I had to skedaddle ahead of Too Many Ice Beasts. Had to drop Apportation to get Agony when elephants and hydras showed up (another hydra had already chased me off the main dungeon), but with that and Animate Skeleton, I clobbered the hydra and a herd of elephants.

All set to commit to blades with Short Blades 4 at the upper Lair, but... well, I've got lots of ?remove curse, let's see what that artifact morningstar is... pain rF++, Stlth++. That might be worth switching, especially if I find a better robe! I think I'll train it enough to find the plusses, and see what that looks like. (And no, I'm not carrying all those scrolls around with me, I just picked them up for the chardump.)

ETA: The mace is +6,+6, and will make it much more practical to upgrade to troll leather!

Herman.txt

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ETA: First Win, three runes! (Swamp, Shoals, Vault). Details and attachment in comment thread below.

[KoboldLord]

If you're going Kiku, you've clearly committed to a necromancy build, so a pain weapon is a godsend no matter what base type it is. I don't really understand why you picked her as a mummy wizard, since most really good necromancy buffs don't work on undead casters, but if you have a pain artifact clearly the gamble has paid off big. 4 skill levels is basically a negligible sunk cost to give up on, so by all means switch to maces. Eventually you can upgrade to a demon whip of pain, perhaps.

Turn off nearly all of your skills. Version 0.9 gives you unprecedented control over your xp expenditures, so there's no reason to be wasting so much as a single point of xp in things like throwing skill on a spellcaster. Get your magic skills up high enough that all your spells are 'excellent', because I see three greats and a very good in there. You can probably fix that in a single level of Lair. Also prepare Swiftness and pick up Apportation when you get a free slot.

[Mental Mouse]

Actually, I'm doing the Wiki's Kiku->Sif Muna guide. (This is one of the more recent and current guides -- I haven't reached the endgame yet, but I've gotten further than with any other build.) As i continue, I do have a fair bit of exp scattered into various utility skills, but I'm starting to focus more, towards Necro/Summoning/Air (Air for the Charms and eventually Airstrike).

Latest developments: Cleaned out Elf, with considerable booty (legendary deck of summoning!)... and traded 2 scrolls of aquirement to a Trove for a room full of jewelry , including six artifacts! Unfortunately, that also means I've blown through 14 identify scrolls and still have two un-ID'ed amulets. (And took a Faith hit on Sif -- , but I'm not too worried -- I've got plenty of spellbooks for now.) I've ABL'ed Swamp and Shoals, and the Vaults are next up (after a bit of diving in the main dungeon, of course!). Still have a decent horde of abominations too -- saving some in the Lair for the branch ends, but that leaves plenty to go with me until I (re)gain Shadow Creatures and get Haunt up to snuff. I think I'll pop back to Orc:4 for rings of teleport control and wizardry - 1120 gold between them, but I can afford it.

New dump:

Herman.txt

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[Mental Mouse]

OK, just went through Crypt -- basically a cakewalk, as expected for this build (Dispel Undead, Abjurations, and abominations to hide behind, with Haunt as a smite-nuke). Nothing too strategic, but lots of books (especially once Sif kicked in) and a fair bit of gold. I did buy wands of teleport and healing on Vaults:3 . Crypt didn't provide nearly enough gold to pay me back for the rings and wands, but they were worth it anyway! Back to my stashes to reconsolidate and think about my spell lineup before continuing with Vaults. I did use up a buttload of abominations, but I'm deep enough now that their weaknesses are starting to show. I've got 18 of them "on deck" as I enter Vault:4, we'll see how many I can leave for the Vault:8 run. I've got a bunch more waiting for Swamp:5, but I suspect Shoals:5 will have to be Shadow Creatures and Haunt -- Shoals is just too hostile for those guys, and my limited experience of the rune level is that it's even worse.

[Mental Mouse]

Shoals was much easier than last time -- and the abominations did rather better. (Of course, this time I did it after Swamp, and generally better-equipped!) Swamp was mostly a box of hydras, with some stair-dancing. Dungeon-dived down to D:27, and cleared everything through the first chamber of the Zot entry. Based on that, I finally memorized Insulation, and dropped the artifact dagger I'd been depending on for rElec. Finally found a staff of wizardry, but I dropped it, because I'm going to need that mace for its rF++! (Also, despite still being mostly a caster, I'm actually doing pretty well bashing folks with that +6 Morningstar of pain!)

I'm also getting to like Shadow Creatures, to the point where I'm considering dropping Twisted Resurrection entirely for Zot, probably replacing it with Animate Dead. I already memorized I's Mystic Blast, but it's not clearly superior to Airstrike, especially since the latter is smite-targeted. The question is what to replace it with.... And no, I don't think my Air 9 is good enough for Tornado, even if it's better than my Conjurations 7!

I could use the Salamander armor, but that's worse armor than my +4 troll leather, and would leave me with the mummy healing problem. I did find a ring of regeneration, but I'd rather save it for faster healing, when I don't need that slot for fire resistance. With a +3 buckler of fire resistance, the mace, and bog-standard rF+ ring, I now have rF+++ on call for Zot, and rC++ with my usual amulet (which also provides rCorr to complement my cloak of preservation). Back to stashes to replace a couple of wands and pick up rMut for Zot, then off to Tomb:8! For completeness, the rest of my armour is a +2 helm of see invisible (now upgraded to a spiked version, fwiw), +2 gloves, and now +2 elven boots of running!

[Mental Mouse]

Finally, done with Tomb:8! Abominations have definitely been demoted to popcorn, so I'm tossing the spell. My remaining 'boms will probably do to help clear the rest of the Zot entry vault.... The question is what to do with those spell levels... I'm leaning towards Flight, to save me another couple of inventory slots. Onward to my very first sight of The Realm of Zot!

New Char dump:

Herman.txt

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[slowcar]

Your char looks great, and seems to be in good shape to win with 3 runes.
if you plan to go to the extended game i wonder what your plans are, skill-wise. it looks kind of messy there.
necro 17? why so high?
m&f 8? why stop before minimum delay?
stabbing enabled? it's just a xp-drain for you, as a caster you want to handle dangerous enemies from afar, and simple enemies are simple.
do you have any targets, spellwise? summoning 11 seems to indicate that you plan on a high summoning spell, i don't have enough experience in this area to say if haunt needs to be replaced by something bigger.

if you plan for extended endgame you'll want one of the big gun spells, maybe tornado or ice storm, but it would be a long way to get them castable, especially with the skills scattered like this.

[cerebovssquire]

if you plan for extended endgame you'll want one of the big gun spells, maybe tornado or ice storm, but it would be a long way to get them castable, especially with the skills scattered like this.

The extended endgame is totally doable without them. With some spells helpful for grabbing the runes (Blink, Control Teleport, Controlled Blink if you can get it, Apportation, Swiftness, Flight, Haste) and especially with mummy's rTorm it won't be a problem as long as the character has good melee and perhaps some spells for damage output (Bolt of Fire/Cold and Iron Shot are great in the extended endgame). I'd always work on melee and said Charms and Translocations before I even consider getting the level 9 damage spells castable.

[slowcar]

The extended endgame is totally doable without them.

yes, true. in this case there is no direct damage spell but airstrike, this seems to be a bit thin, especially as the melee capability is not that strong.

[Mental Mouse]

For this game, I'm going for a basic 3 rune win, on account of it would be my Very First. If I were going for extended endgame, yes, I'd want bigger damage output, and I'd have gone more into Conjurations (plus probably a backup elemental school, presumably Fire or Ice). If I were doing this again, I'd also be exploring Hexes, but I don't think I'll have time for that. And I think Control Teleport would be next up after Flight, or... hmm, I only need 1 more spell level for both, I've got some coming up RSN, and CT seems more immediately useful (also its book is underfoot, while the other is downstairs). OK, I'm going for that.

Comments on skills: For Stabbing, Stealth, and T&D, I left them enabled because I realized that even with the new system, an "enabled" skill doesn't take much damage if it's not being used! Charms and Air are for all those lovely support spells, plus Airstrike. I'm liable to regret not having more T&D in Zot, but with luck I can use zombies and summons as minesweepers.

Based on the mummy's -2 for most skills, I generally tried to develop core competencies, assisted by the lovely 0.9 system. This is a Necro/Summoning build, and Necro was my big damage-dealer for most of the game, so it got well ahead of Summoning. Good point about M&F -- looking at the LDB, I guess skill 11 would be minimum delay for a speed 10 morningstar? We'll see if I have time to reach that. Based on your feedback, I've now focused M&F, Summoning, and Air Magic. (And when Evocations reaches 12 I'll turn that off.)

I might be able to finish clearing the Zot entrance (two more chambers, at least one of which is mostly draconians) before I leave for work today, then, this evening... The Realm.

[bobross419]

If you switch from auto to manual mode, usage doesn't matter - Exp gets split up. You can also set a focus.

Example:
Manual w/o Focus
M&F - 25%
Spellcasting - 25%
Conjure - 25%
T&D - 25%

Manual w/ M&F Focused
M&F - 40%
Spellcasting - 20%
Conjure - 20%
T&D - 20%

I think that to get the initial level in a skill it is still based on usage though, except spellcasting which seems to get trained if you pick up a Spellbook.

Generally, I use manual with focus on specific skills. One benefit to manual is that once you have 1 point in a skill you don't have to use it for it to train. If I find a Large Shield early I'll equip it until Shields:1 then unequip but leave training enabled until it is at usable levels so I don't face negatives from the Large Shield, but I still get a jump start on shield training.

[Mental Mouse]

I actually like the "auto" mode, in that it trains the stuff you're actually using (like the old system, but better in that the weights accumulate before the kills), and use focus for skills "I'm gonna need later". Starting spellcasting... Is picking up Spellbooks the new way to do that, in lieu of scrolls? Makes a little more sense in terms of Trog's new hostility to learning magic!

[bobross419]

Maybe its scrolls... you could be right about that.

[Mental Mouse]

And come to think of it, Trog worshippers have other reasons to pick up spellbooks (and drop or throw them...).

[Mental Mouse]

First, character dump:

morgue-Herman-20110830-215049.txt

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Thoughts: I left Control Teleport, and arguably Flight, way too late -- Flight+Swiftness especially was damn useful, but On Zot:5 and the Orb Run, Control Teleport wasn't. The Orb run itself was no problem -- the generated monsters were nothing I couldn't run away from, or in some cases through. Interestingly, the only abominations I saw looked like my small aboms, not the wierdos I met in my brief trip through the Abyss. Orbs of Fire really are the PITA they're reputed to be, even for my fast, teleporting, undead. summoner. Killer Klowns probably would have been if I'd had to fight them myself.

On the game in general: this build is effing [i}deadly[/i], even not using Haunt much. Come to think of it, I probably should have used *that* more in Zot -- I was leaning on Shadow Creatures instead. On the other hand, I bet those ghosts would have been a lot more fragile than the dragons and draconians I was summoning in Zot...) I probably was too quick to mob uniques with the abominations, but several of them had killed me often enough that I was all, screw the halved experience, I want that guy dead! Also, instead of burning all the aboms in Zot, I should have left small squads on each level, in case one of those orb-run monsters actually did pose a problem. Decks are actually kind of cool, even if they soak up a lot of identify scrolls. Oh yeah... getting good equipment early, and mostly mostly sticking with it, made a huge difference -- for most of the game, I wasn't even bothering to ID any weapon that wasn't an M&F artifact, and the same for an increasing number of armour types. (I did upgrade helmet and gloves late-game, having a surplus of detect & remove curse scrolls) My last game's worrying about Which Demon Weapon to use was kind of misguided -- the +6 morningstar of pain was Good Enough For the Job, so any of the weapons I'd been considering would have done fine.

On consideration, I might have been able to play through Kiku's wrath instead of waiting it out in the Temple, especially with a ring of sustain abilities (which I actually had down in the Lair at the time,I'd forgotten it ). The big hazard would have been the forced necro miscasts -- as it was, those hammered me a couple of times until I learned to just let my aboms handle the attackers. Assuming I survived those, I would have shed Kiku's wrath somewhere in the Lair sub-branches -- maybe sooner if the forced miscasts sped things up.

Things I'd do differently next time: Ditch Twisted Resurrection for Animate Dead a little sooner, I was spending too much time in Tomb hauling corpses. Get into Hexes, as it's one of the mummy's relative strengths, and I was short on direct attacks. More utility spells to save inventory slots, earlier.

[slowcar]

nicely done, good to see that you did not succumb to the temptation of more runes and booked your win.

in zot i think shadow creatures are even more powerful than haunt, but i am no expert on summoning.

good luck with your next mummy and the extended endgame!

[Happy Corner]

I hear a lot of good things about Shadow Creatures, especially if you use it in Zot.

And congratulations, Mental Mouse!

[Stormfox]

Use Shadow Creatures in Zot and you get fun stuff like draconian packs, storm dragons, and the occasional golden dragon. Highly recommended from personal experience.

[bobross419]

Thanks for helping me decide whether or not to memorize Shadow Creatures, guys. And gratz on the win Mouse!

Currently running my most successful Op loosely based on the the MuWi guide. OpVM of Kiku that has morphed into a summoner. Man, Twisted Res makes mid game mostly trivial.

[Mental Mouse]

Thanks for the help and moral support! My next (current) game is a major change... Troll Transmuter of Nemelex! I'm not really expecting to win this one, but I want to see how far I can take it. I just reached the Ecumenical Temple, 2 plain decks and an ornate deck of escape... showing the Portal. Also, rings of rF+, rC+, and teleport. (But that last one left me with damn few scrolls...) I might do another CIP post for this one if it lasts long enough.... ETA: Nope, drawing blind from a plain deck got Damnation.