Now YASD: KoBe Early but farthest I've made it (stuck)

[qdaku]

So, this is the farthest I've made it ever in Crawl. In several years (ha).

Kobold Berserker.

Still very early days. I can't find any poison resistance. I have a bit of rC++ and rN+ on a god gifted artifact quickblade. Main weapon is a +5/+7 quickblack (unbranded, though I have a vorpalize weapon scroll). I made myself some steam dragon armour in the absense of anyother ideas.

I've cleared Orc. I've touched level 1 elf. I've done lair 1-7 and dove dungeons to Lvl13 (no reliable see invis except for a mace I'd rather not use and it's starting to get dangerous). Lair 1-7 without poison reistance was not fun. Almost died a few times.

My questions:

Where should I go? Lack of poison resistence is killing me re: branches in the lair. Lack of fire is making Elf kind of dangerous.
Daggers aren't doing so great against targets anymore. I trained long blades up to 8. Should I switch to longswords? What should I max out long blades (and/or shortblades for that matter at?). What should I cap evocations at?

Any help would be appreciated. I've generally been sneaky stabby stab stab berserk on things. It's worked so far.

dump:

  Code:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.11.0-23-g2ef59a3 (webtiles) character file.

daku the Swashbuckler (Kobold Berserker)           Turns: 43994, Time: 05:57:37

HP  46/82 (86)   AC 12     Str 15      XL: 15   Next: 42%
MP  32/32        EV 30     Int  8      God: Trog [******]
Gold 1691        SH  0     Dex 20      Spells:  0 memorised, 14 levels left

Res.Fire  : . . .   See Invis. : .   z - +0,+4 quick blade "Straroc" {god gift, sla
Res.Cold  : + + .   Warding    : .   P - +0 steam dragon armour
Life Prot.: + . .   Conserve   : +   (no shield)
Res.Poison: .       Res.Corr.  : .   V - +1 orc wizard hat
Res.Elec. : .       Clarity    : .   q - +1 cloak
Sust.Abil.: . .     Spirit.Shd : .   X - +0 pair of gauntlets
Res.Mut.  : .       Stasis     : .   d - +1 pair of elf boots (curse)
Res.Rott. : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .   m - amulet of conservation
Saprovore : + + .   Levitation : .   s - ring of magical power
                    Ctrl.Flight: .   F - ring of protection from magic

@: quite resistant to hostile enchantments, extraordinarily stealthy
A: disease resistance, carnivore 3, deterioration 1, fast metabolism 1, -10% hp,
saprovore 2, AC +1, Str -2, Dex +2
a: Burn Spellbooks, Berserk, Trog's Hand, Brothers in Arms, Renounce Religion


You are on level 13 of the Dungeon.
You worship Trog.
Trog is exalted by your worship.
You are full.

You have visited 5 branches of the dungeon, and seen 28 of its levels.
You have also visited: Ice Cave.

You have collected 1828 gold pieces.
You have spent 157 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 n - an uncursed sling of flame {god gift}
 o - a +3,+1 elven long sword of draining
 w - a +5,+7 quick blade {god gift}
 z - the +0,+4 quick blade "Straroc" (weapon) {god gift, slay orc, rC++ rN+}
   (Trog gifted it to you on level 4 of the Orcish Mines)   
   
   It is especially effective against all of orcish descent.
   
   It greatly protects you from cold.
   It protects you from negative energy.
 B - a +0,+0 orcish short sword of freezing
 H - the +9,+4 hammer "Beetlebane" {speed, rElec SInv}
   (You took it off a deep elf mage on level 1 of the Elven Halls)   
   
   Attacks with this weapon take half as long, but cause slightly less damage.
   
   It insulates you from electricity.
   It enhances your eyesight.
 O - a +3,+1 elven sabre of flaming {god gift}
 Z - a +1,+5 anti-magic sabre {god gift}
Missiles
 v - 8 stones
 y - 21 darts (quivered)
 Y - 6 sling bullets
Armour
 d - a cursed +1 pair of elven boots (worn)
 f - the +1 robe of Pucley {+Inv SInv}
   (You found it on level 7 of the Lair of Beasts)   
   
   It enhances your eyesight.
   It lets you turn invisible.
 j - the +5 chain mail of Weirdness {rC+ Str+3 Dam+4}
   (You found it on level 7 of the Lair of Beasts)   
   
   It affects your strength (+3).
   It affects your damage-dealing abilities (+4).
   It protects you from cold.
 q - a +1 cloak (worn)
 P - a +0 steam dragon armour (worn)
 V - a +1 orcish wizard hat (worn)
 X - a +0 pair of gauntlets (worn)
Magical devices
 p - a wand of invisibility {zapped: 1}
 N - a wand of enslavement {zapped: 5}
 Q - a wand of slowing {zapped: 2}
 R - a wand of paralysis {zapped: 2}
 T - a wand of flame {zapped: 1}
Comestibles
 g - 13 honeycombs
 k - a royal jelly
 r - 5 meat rations
 D - 2 rotting chunks of orc flesh
Scrolls
 b - a scroll of enchant armour
 u - 2 scrolls of remove curse
 I - a scroll of immolation
 K - 4 scrolls of identify
 L - 2 scrolls of recharging
Jewellery
 c - an uncursed amulet of guardian spirit
 m - an amulet of conservation (around neck)
 s - a ring of magical power (right hand)
 x - an uncursed amulet of stasis
 F - a ring of protection from magic (left hand)
Potions
 a - a potion of restore abilities
 h - a potion of invisibility
 t - a potion of resistance
 A - 4 potions of curing
 G - a potion of might
 U - a potion of magic
Books
 l - a hardcover book   
   This book is beyond your current level of understanding.
   
   Trog disapproves of the use of such an item.
Miscellaneous
 i - a lantern of shadows


   Skills:
 + Level 14.2 Fighting
 - Level 17.2 Short Blades
 * Level 8.5 Long Blades
 - Level 3.0 Maces & Flails
 - Level 2.0 Armour
 + Level 15.1 Dodging
 - Level 14.0 Stealth
 + Level 11.9 Stabbing
 * Level 5.2 Traps & Doors
 - Level 5.5 Evocations


You have 14 spell levels left.
You don't know any spells.

Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (14/27)            Temple (1/1) D:7             Orc (4/4) D:9
    Elf (1/3) Orc:4          Lair (8/8) D:11         Shoals (0/5) Lair:4
 Spider (0/5) Lair:6        Slime (0/6) Lair:6     
Vaults: D:14-19     

[palin]

Try to find and train a branded longblade (fire/freeze is nice, but chopping or drain is good too). You already are shieldless so a two-handed longblade should be nice.

[nordetsa]

I would advise you to not to go try Elven halls now. They can cast invisible and the new maps make it really easy for bunch of them to attack you at once. Also without conservation it is highly likely that you'll lose quite a few number of scrolls and potions.

If you cleared orc, I guess you visited shop there? You'd really want to change that ring of magical power as it will do nothing for you.

How did you get bad mutations? The mutations are not really bad, but will be a great nuisance.

[qdaku]

Nothing in the shop armour wise. Nothing great weapon wise. No rings/amulets for sale.

Ring of magical power gets used with amulet of guardian spirit to give myself another ~20-30 HP when fighting things w/o magic. Honestly. I have no other rings so it's not like I can swap it to something more useful.

[tasonir]

Quickblades make fine endgame weapons. They're weaker against armored targets, but the damage per time is still rather high. You can switch to a long blade if you want, but it isn't required.

That said, slay orc isn't the best of passives, and you'll want to try to find one with a better brand (which amounts to waiting for trog to give you one). Venom or electrocution are probably best, although most any other damage brand would be fine too. the resistances on yours are pretty nice though

If you can find some way to cure those mutations I'd probably do it. You can suffer along with them for a while, most aren't too bad, but I hate having -hp especially on a low hp race.

Where to go: Keep doing the dungeon. You can make it to 15-17 easily, and probably go up to around 20 safely. I wouldn't go deeper than that though, go and do the vaults when you find it. Do not do vault:8, stop at 7. Hopefully you have rPois then, and can do lair sub-branches. Then finish the main dungeon, elf, and crypt (do not enter the tomb) in whichever order you feel most comfortable, then do vault:8 (or alternatively you can do the abyss), and then go to zot, get the orb and win.

If you don't find rPois in vault/dungeon, shoals is primarily cold damage, which you are strongly resistant to. If you still don't find rPois, then spider can be done without it, just be much more careful.

Lately I've been skipping elf/crypt on my runs because they just take time and aren't necessary, but they should boost your character's power if you want to play safe and cautious.

[qdaku]

And has become YASD. My own fault. Got cocky and accidentally stepped twice on manual explore while in site of a bunch of centaurs. Pincushioned!

Oh well. Interesting run while it lasted --def. going to reroll that one.

thanks!

[nordetsa]

After pressing arrow keys blindly and getting shafted by bunch of yaktaurs on more than one occasion, I learned to value to point & click movement. It takes time, and around water area it gets bit annoying (those big fishes forcing me to move one tile at a time) but at least it stops automatically as soon as my character sees something/or his status changes.

[Psieye]

Or shift+arrow key. It amounts to "hold down arrow key in this direction but stop as soon as you see a monster". Or does shift only work with the vi direction keys (like 'y' and 'j')?

For that matter, shift+X and specifying where you want to go works too ('point and click' without the need for a mouse) - all these "move many tiles at once" commands stop when something hostile comes in view.

[crate]

You can move with just regular x too, i do this a lot since it's faster than map movement.