YASD GrSk^Chei: SFT isn't instant, but it's all my fault
Posted: Tuesday, 5th November 2013, 14:56I generally don't like posting YASDs here because of the "yet another" part of them: almost all ways to die are already well-known, outside of the funniest ones like confused Psyche polymorphing Gastronok into a golden dragon. But this character was extremely promising, and i actually learned something new after dying.
With this gargoyle, i was aiming for one of the highest AC+EV sums on the tournament, and at the moment of death i had the means of achieving ~82 AC and 58 EV. That would've been enough for the second AC+EV result, and my Armour and Dodging skills were not even maxed. That was the reason why i worshiped Chei; axes were my weapon of choice because i expected to be surrounded very often.
The start of this game was quite harsh due to the low HP and axes aptitude, and even with 12(!) javelins i somehow found on the first two floors of the dungeon i couldn't kill early uniques. However, another lucky find, a shop with a wand of draining on D:4 greatly helped me dealing with the early threats. Then on D:8 one of the orc warriors gifted me a vampiric battleaxe, pretty much putting my game on autopilot till Zot:5, where orb of fire spam actually made me worry somewhat. And Elven Halls were a bit tricky as always. I should say, a heavy armored Gr is among the best users of vampiric weapons because leeched health for them makes up a bigger part of their HP bar, while their AC makes each hit point more valuable.
Of course, i wasn't satisfied with the main game and went into extended: my AC and EV weren't maxed after all. A temporary switch to TSO before Pan-diving worked just fine, Chei's wrath did approximately no harm to me. With an exec axe of holy wrath, most Pan lords died pretty easily. But Cerebov (and his brimstone fiends) managed to put up quite a fight: i would've died to him if there wasn't a nice hiding spot in his vault (evilmike_cerebov_lava, where the rune lies). So, after surviving the Pan lords i expected a boring but easy search for the demonic rune, but this happened.
A Hell Sentinel. Well, of course, i was aware of their existence in Pan and them being a top tier threat for my hasteless low HP character. But before that i killed 6 of them just fine by using uncontrolled blink (the game didn't give me cBlink, and that's probably a fair trade for the axe i got) and just bashing them in the face. But that exact one was a tough cookie: it used almost every opportunity to throw hellfire at me, as if it was my worst nightmare. I started contemplating using Step From Time at ~70 HP, but my thought process was "well, it's okay, i can probably still finish it off before it hits me hard, but if not, then i use my instant "escape" ability". Well, it hellfired me once more the next turn, and then i left the plane of existence only to find the enemy next to me (but at the other side, it must have wandered into a corridor behind me and got stuck there), finishing me off with yet another hellfire.
Needless to say, i felt pretty upset after that and started to realize why nobody (except me, Bloax and tasonir) likes Cheibriados. After winning several games with this god, i was convinced in his last ability being instant and able to get me out of any trouble. And the falsity of the last statement was quite disappointing for me.
But, after giving more thought into this situation, i looked at it from another viewpoint. Please consider my conclusion before posting your generic condescending comments about the Yukkuri God.
I had quite some experience with Chei, and Step From Time failed me like this for the first time, right? Which means, the probability of this happening lies around 0—1%. On the other hand, my Invocations were at 12, making the last ability have 5—7% failure chance. So, what happened to me was basically another, rarer type of ability "miscast". And i shouldn't be that mad about this death since i might have as well miscast Step From Time in a more usual way.
So, the true lesson is, once again, that using unreliable saving options at the last possible moment might end up badly. Also, Hell Sentinels are Mennas-level threats for Gr and i should've at least slowed the last one down with Bend Time. And, to be honest, doing extended with Chei and no cBlink isn't the safest thing ever.
Morgue: http://crawl.lantea.net/crawl/morgue/Zo ... 115021.txt
(btw, this character earned me the Vow of Courage III banner, so at least it achieved something)
With this gargoyle, i was aiming for one of the highest AC+EV sums on the tournament, and at the moment of death i had the means of achieving ~82 AC and 58 EV. That would've been enough for the second AC+EV result, and my Armour and Dodging skills were not even maxed. That was the reason why i worshiped Chei; axes were my weapon of choice because i expected to be surrounded very often.
The start of this game was quite harsh due to the low HP and axes aptitude, and even with 12(!) javelins i somehow found on the first two floors of the dungeon i couldn't kill early uniques. However, another lucky find, a shop with a wand of draining on D:4 greatly helped me dealing with the early threats. Then on D:8 one of the orc warriors gifted me a vampiric battleaxe, pretty much putting my game on autopilot till Zot:5, where orb of fire spam actually made me worry somewhat. And Elven Halls were a bit tricky as always. I should say, a heavy armored Gr is among the best users of vampiric weapons because leeched health for them makes up a bigger part of their HP bar, while their AC makes each hit point more valuable.
Of course, i wasn't satisfied with the main game and went into extended: my AC and EV weren't maxed after all. A temporary switch to TSO before Pan-diving worked just fine, Chei's wrath did approximately no harm to me. With an exec axe of holy wrath, most Pan lords died pretty easily. But Cerebov (and his brimstone fiends) managed to put up quite a fight: i would've died to him if there wasn't a nice hiding spot in his vault (evilmike_cerebov_lava, where the rune lies). So, after surviving the Pan lords i expected a boring but easy search for the demonic rune, but this happened.
A Hell Sentinel. Well, of course, i was aware of their existence in Pan and them being a top tier threat for my hasteless low HP character. But before that i killed 6 of them just fine by using uncontrolled blink (the game didn't give me cBlink, and that's probably a fair trade for the axe i got) and just bashing them in the face. But that exact one was a tough cookie: it used almost every opportunity to throw hellfire at me, as if it was my worst nightmare. I started contemplating using Step From Time at ~70 HP, but my thought process was "well, it's okay, i can probably still finish it off before it hits me hard, but if not, then i use my instant "escape" ability". Well, it hellfired me once more the next turn, and then i left the plane of existence only to find the enemy next to me (but at the other side, it must have wandered into a corridor behind me and got stuck there), finishing me off with yet another hellfire.
Needless to say, i felt pretty upset after that and started to realize why nobody (except me, Bloax and tasonir) likes Cheibriados. After winning several games with this god, i was convinced in his last ability being instant and able to get me out of any trouble. And the falsity of the last statement was quite disappointing for me.
But, after giving more thought into this situation, i looked at it from another viewpoint. Please consider my conclusion before posting your generic condescending comments about the Yukkuri God.
I had quite some experience with Chei, and Step From Time failed me like this for the first time, right? Which means, the probability of this happening lies around 0—1%. On the other hand, my Invocations were at 12, making the last ability have 5—7% failure chance. So, what happened to me was basically another, rarer type of ability "miscast". And i shouldn't be that mad about this death since i might have as well miscast Step From Time in a more usual way.
So, the true lesson is, once again, that using unreliable saving options at the last possible moment might end up badly. Also, Hell Sentinels are Mennas-level threats for Gr and i should've at least slowed the last one down with Bend Time. And, to be honest, doing extended with Chei and no cBlink isn't the safest thing ever.
Morgue: http://crawl.lantea.net/crawl/morgue/Zo ... 115021.txt
(btw, this character earned me the Vow of Courage III banner, so at least it achieved something)
Chei is my favorite god but I don't play it often because it is 
I agree with Sandman: they feel quite equivalent to me. They are both brutes that can smash a large chunk of your HP at range when you first meet them. The main difference is, because Cyclopes appear mid game, they eventually become easy monsters when you reach the late game, but Stone Giants appear late game, so they don't trivialize nearly as much by the time you reach the end game.