Slime Squisher
Posts: 404
Joined: Sunday, 13th February 2011, 13:57
Saturday, 22nd December 2012, 13:09
YAVP DsCj with 5 Zigs
I wanted to make a YAVP, as it had been a long time since I beat the game.
I've had a few characters splat after clearing Zot by trying Zigs or being stupid in Hell. Then I had a bunch that I splatted so poorly that, if I hadn't actually been trying, they would almost look like start-scumming.
So finally, here is a moderately impressive ice-based DSCj of Vehumet with 15 runes, 10 maxed skills, and 5 complete Zigs.
I wanted to do more Zigs, but ultimately got bored scumming around Pan for the gold for a ~$9k one and needed to do things in real life.
Probably the key to success was that I got the lifestealer mutation, which is just awesome. If I understand correctly, you get a regeneration boost per corpse so one suitably deadly icestorm can make you regenerate faster than anything besides torment can knock you down.
Although I did pick up Necromutation later, I spent most of the late game abusing regeneration and sublimation of blood. Sure, you are going to get tormented, or burned by holy fire as a DS, so just roll with it and plan to get the HP back as soon as possible.
That actually made Holy Pan (and Zig floors) trivial. Quite a lot of holy things leave corpses, so I could just Icestorm enough Angels to regenerate so fast as to be essentially unkillable.
Similarly, Vehumet would top up my MP but, when that stalled, I could spam sublimation of blood on myself, confident that the HP would be back in a turn or two.
The other reason for his success was probably a nice early find:
Not the best base type, but just the right resistances for an ice-based caster and I kept it the whole game for the one keypress resists. Although I began to suspect the RNG was trolling me when I found this soon after:
Awesome resists, but really, a chain mail? ... I never used it.
Once freezing cloud was online, I never looked back.
Anyway, much later, the only really difficult Zig levels were Mummy ones (should I necromutate and avoid torments, but lose sublimation, or stick with the strategy of regeneration and sublimation that worked everywhere else?) and ones with tough creatures + silent spectres! (The strategy seemed to be to use wands, especially teleport and fire, until the silence is broken, often leaving you surrounded, but with all your MP suddenly ready to go.)
The other entertaining ones were full of moths of suppression and ghost moths.
The first time I saw that, I confused suppression for silence, which caused me to completely get my tactics wrong and nearly YASD.
Probably my favorite Zig levels were full of living creatures. After a while, you begin to think of dragons just as flying food! (Free HP, MP, and chunks - what else do I need?) The other Zig trick was to spam icestorm such that it would also nuke the next wave of creatures while they were still just out of LOS.
Other highlights included:
When just starting Zot/Pan/first Zig, I had some worrying food moments as all my main killing spells were causing me to hunger. My kit for a lot of that part of the game consisted of the ring of vitality and amulet of gourmand, and hoping for delicious dragons to stop by.
Late game, I learned some earth and shattered a lot of tomb and the hells. There's a nice synergy to ice there, as it's effective against things that are cold resistant or too close to icestorm. LRD will change the way you think about bone dragons forever.
Finding an early Trove, but not the Demon Trident I needed to enter it until clearing pretty much the whole dungeon, Zot, and finally my first Zig! By that time, there was nothing that I needed anyway, so I felt conned.
Finding about 8 rings of the octopus king (didn't pick them all up, so I don't think I can count exactly).
Lobbing icestorms at Cerebov while he lobbed firestorms back to see who died first (him, but only by 14HP).
Forgetting how many Pan runes there are and spending a long time hunting for that elusive 16th one.
A really really tedious journey through the abyss.
Made a +9 demon trident and +10 pearl dragon armour, but dumped them because I think I could one-shot more things while wearing archmagi and wielding a staff.
I finally found Hellion island, by landing on it. One cast of shatter removed all the hellions...
[Doh! Edit:] Morgue: http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/Dassem/morg ... 114049.txt
I've had a few characters splat after clearing Zot by trying Zigs or being stupid in Hell. Then I had a bunch that I splatted so poorly that, if I hadn't actually been trying, they would almost look like start-scumming.
So finally, here is a moderately impressive ice-based DSCj of Vehumet with 15 runes, 10 maxed skills, and 5 complete Zigs.
I wanted to do more Zigs, but ultimately got bored scumming around Pan for the gold for a ~$9k one and needed to do things in real life.
Probably the key to success was that I got the lifestealer mutation, which is just awesome. If I understand correctly, you get a regeneration boost per corpse so one suitably deadly icestorm can make you regenerate faster than anything besides torment can knock you down.
Although I did pick up Necromutation later, I spent most of the late game abusing regeneration and sublimation of blood. Sure, you are going to get tormented, or burned by holy fire as a DS, so just roll with it and plan to get the HP back as soon as possible.
That actually made Holy Pan (and Zig floors) trivial. Quite a lot of holy things leave corpses, so I could just Icestorm enough Angels to regenerate so fast as to be essentially unkillable.
Similarly, Vehumet would top up my MP but, when that stalled, I could spam sublimation of blood on myself, confident that the HP would be back in a turn or two.
The other reason for his success was probably a nice early find:
Not the best base type, but just the right resistances for an ice-based caster and I kept it the whole game for the one keypress resists. Although I began to suspect the RNG was trolling me when I found this soon after:
Awesome resists, but really, a chain mail? ... I never used it.
Once freezing cloud was online, I never looked back.
Anyway, much later, the only really difficult Zig levels were Mummy ones (should I necromutate and avoid torments, but lose sublimation, or stick with the strategy of regeneration and sublimation that worked everywhere else?) and ones with tough creatures + silent spectres! (The strategy seemed to be to use wands, especially teleport and fire, until the silence is broken, often leaving you surrounded, but with all your MP suddenly ready to go.)
The other entertaining ones were full of moths of suppression and ghost moths.
The first time I saw that, I confused suppression for silence, which caused me to completely get my tactics wrong and nearly YASD.Probably my favorite Zig levels were full of living creatures. After a while, you begin to think of dragons just as flying food! (Free HP, MP, and chunks - what else do I need?) The other Zig trick was to spam icestorm such that it would also nuke the next wave of creatures while they were still just out of LOS.
Other highlights included:
When just starting Zot/Pan/first Zig, I had some worrying food moments as all my main killing spells were causing me to hunger. My kit for a lot of that part of the game consisted of the ring of vitality and amulet of gourmand, and hoping for delicious dragons to stop by.
Late game, I learned some earth and shattered a lot of tomb and the hells. There's a nice synergy to ice there, as it's effective against things that are cold resistant or too close to icestorm. LRD will change the way you think about bone dragons forever.
Finding an early Trove, but not the Demon Trident I needed to enter it until clearing pretty much the whole dungeon, Zot, and finally my first Zig! By that time, there was nothing that I needed anyway, so I felt conned.
Finding about 8 rings of the octopus king (didn't pick them all up, so I don't think I can count exactly).
Lobbing icestorms at Cerebov while he lobbed firestorms back to see who died first (him, but only by 14HP).
Forgetting how many Pan runes there are and spending a long time hunting for that elusive 16th one.
A really really tedious journey through the abyss.
Made a +9 demon trident and +10 pearl dragon armour, but dumped them because I think I could one-shot more things while wearing archmagi and wielding a staff.
I finally found Hellion island, by landing on it.
One cast of shatter removed all the hellions...[Doh! Edit:] Morgue: http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/Dassem/morg ... 114049.txt