Post Wednesday, 14th November 2012, 16:09

TrSt [YAVP] Two different strategies - abyssal record?

Given the question how trolls (or ogres) can survive the midgame when those nasty shooters appear in deeper dungeon or the vaults, cerebovssquire recently made a post advising a TrCj.

I went for another option and took TrSt because

  • distillation (lev 1) and evaporate (lev 2) are easy to learn and maybe even better than mephitic cloud. (These spells won't be available in 0.12 any longer.)
  • you'll get digging spell. It's nice to dig a tunnel - you can kill nasty yaktaurs one by one.
  • transmutation magic, necessary for dist/evap, is welcome. Statue form is still a kind of holy grail for unarmed fighters, especially for a troll.
I got two successful games:

1) TrSt of Ash (morgue file)
I played with a shield and worshipped Ash for increasing troll's lousy magic skills. For statue form / haste you'll usually want something like tMut 12, earth 16 and charms 14. Charms hurts with a -4 aptitude! With Ash and cursed jewellry it's about tMut 8, earth 12 and charms 10 due to Ash's skill boost.

2) TrSt of Oka -> TSO (morgue file)
Oka is better in the beginning of the game, heroism is still one of the best abilities. Luckily, I got a very early ice dragon armour and played with it until statue form was castable, switched to mottled dragon armour then. So in the beginning I put XP into armour skill (16 was too much I think) and fought without a shield, losing some defense and getting more offensive power.

Switching to TSO means losing the nice regeneration spell but I felt much more comfortable in hell's branches with TSO. Getting HP on killing and summoning angels is always welcome.

Which of the two strategies was better?

I didn't see a major difference in UC-fighting with/without a shield. The choice of gods had more influence on the game. With Ash you may do the job faster because of gate/stair detection but I think to go with Oka/TSO is safer.

Edit:
This is from the second game, is this an abyssal record? I stayed there for only 11 turns! Anybody (not following Lugonu) who had even more luck?
  Code:
 75947 | Tomb:2   | You are cast into the Abyss!
 75947 | Tomb:2   | Cast into the Abyss (reaper)
 75948 | Abyss    | --oh no
 75951 | Abyss    | --lol
 75959 | Tomb:2   | You pass through the gate.
 75959 | Tomb:2   | Escaped the Abyss.