YAVP, SpEn^Kiku

[hhkb]

So I decided to follow up my first win (MiBe) with a standard SpEn. I chose kiku so I could supplement stabbing w/ melee later on, which I felt was more fun than sneaking around for a 3 rune. And it was quite satisfying being able to kill everything.

I had a few really stupid deaths first. In one game I got a D2 Jiyva which made the early-mid game even easier than normal, but also led to one of my most stupid deaths ever. Getting annoyed with lag and autoexplore in Slime Pits, I started spamming directions and ended up killing a lone jelly. I've learnt that penance in Slime 4 is not a good thing. I had to take a break for a couple days after that one.

Also, like my mibe, I seemed to kill every character that got good loot (quick blade + pain is amazingly nice, until you get hellfired). I didn't get much loot on this one, I ended up having to use two rings of fire + rf+ robe in Zot 5, which hurts when a white draconian breathes you. I even found a trove which had exactly 0 useful things.

I found spen a bit harder than mibe mostly due to HP management, but still overall pretty easy. After getting killed by a 50 damage large rock and couple of hell fires, I started learning when to run. Apart from that, it was quite easy. I think the only thing that ever gave me trouble were shadow dragons in mid game.

I also learned that Shadow Creatures is amazingly good. I couldn't find much use for Agony though - I could easily kill everything living w/ a pain-branded dagger.

Here's the dump:
http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/hhkb/morgue ... 021055.txt

[moocowmoocow]

Nice I want to play SpEn this way sometime soon. What did you use to kill Ancient Liches and Orbs of fire?

[Psieye]

Ancient Liches go down in 2~3 Dispel Undeads. Orbs of Fire are killed with Shadow Creature spam, possibly also with Haunt spam.

[hhkb]

Yep. Shadow creatures + haste takes care of pretty much anything that doesn't have abjuration.

This was also the first time I played web tiles. I really enjoyed it - I felt I could read the screen faster and the tiles look great. The only complaint is the map overview can be a bit tedious to scroll around.

[moocowmoocow]

Thanks. Congrats on win.

[rebthor]

Ancient Liches go down in 2~3 Dispel Undeads. Orbs of Fire are killed with Shadow Creature spam, possibly also with Haunt spam.

Until they LCS you in the face and you get oneshotted. The sad thing is that I had already killed one and two regular liches too. The other sad thing is that 90 damage isn't even close to the max damage on that; it's only slightly above average: crystal spear (3d48).

[njvack]

Yeah, Ancient Liches are like that. You take down a few, think "what's the big deal" and then you get something like this.

Orbs of Fire are, at least, consistently horrible.

[Jeremiah]

Even an ordinary Lich can paralyze you and kill you before you can move again.

[tasonir]

Congratulations! I haven't found much use for agony either, although I tend to mostly use necromancy for regen only, so I'm probably not the best example I think I'll have to try kiku more, I think it's incredible that the pain brand is strong enough to let you go all game with a dagger, which is otherwise about the worst melee weapon you can have.

You're definitely starting to accumulate wins, try a more pure caster or ranged character next, imho. Centaurs with bows are way too easy, and DE is arguably the best generic caster race. If you can survive a spriggan's hp, DE's will be healthy by comparison

[BlackSheep]

Agony is a single target Torment. It can't kill the target, but it's a great way to soften up high-HP monsters.

[tasonir]

That don't have rN+ or high MR. And then you still need another damage source to kill them, which means you probably could just kill them with that damage source from the start. Not if that damage source is pain, but assuming you have anything else, it's probably better than using agony imho. Conjurations or any melee/ranged combat just seems a lot more reliable than tormenting one mob (living only, no negative resistance) at a time and having a chance for it to fail. I suppose it has a niche for pure necromancers who haven't gotten any mid level offenses online yet, but that is a pretty small window imho.

[BlackSheep]

Yes, Necromancy is resistible. This is pretty self-evident. In the context of a discussion about Kiku worshipers, the value of Agony is proportionally higher than in a discussion about every single damage type. If you're going to take advantage of all Kiku has to offer, you're going to invest heavily in Necromancy. Once you've invested heavily in Necromancy, Agony is a great way to do heavy damage to most targets at range. Taking 50% off a target's HP at range remains useful well beyond the time when you've "gotten any mid level offenses online".

[njvack]

If you're gonna hit dudes with a dagger of pain, Agony is a nice way to make them have fewer turns to hit you. If you're Iron Shotting dudes or something then yeah, just keep doing that. But a few rounds of agony means that instead of that hydra chewing on you for three rounds, maybe you get in the first shot and take no damage.

[crate]

Agony is an extremely good spell

[Psieye]

As I recall, agony has a hefty multiplier to its raw spellpower when determining if it breaches MR. Most targets you face until endgame will be within its targeting scope.