The RNG is taunting me

[starhawk]

I'm a terrible Crawl player (mostly through button-mashing lack of patience). I have splatted hundreds, nay thousands of characters since my first and only 3-rune win.

I just fired up the game with yet another MiGl and my first three item finds on D:1 were, in order...

+0 pearl dragon armour
+4 ring of dexterity
ring of poison resistance


I fully expect to be eaten by a grue in the next 500 turns.

[Sandman25]

Try to play slower and more carefully, let it be another victory!

[DDDD]

Taking a very long break from crawl helped me to get a much better player. I'm no longer so excited about everything, and evading enemies that look difficult has almost become a habit. Now that I run from fights much earlier my success rate has multiplied by factors. What helped me a lot was playing weak races (few HP) like spriggans, tengu and felids to learn that pressing fight often equals early death.

[starhawk]

As I suspected -- Duvessa and Dowan came around a corner just after I was taken down to half hp by an orc priest's smite, and I didn't have any escapes or heals ID'd yet. Curse you, RNG! Curse yoooooou!

I can't even blame myself for my usual sloppy play on this one... since I usually wait a couple of levels to mass-ID by quaffing and reading all at once. Usually the first time I end up with a bad cursed item and I start fishing for RC scrolls.

[Sandman25]

since I usually wait a couple of levels to mass-ID by quaffing and reading all at once.

This is wrong approach IMHO. It's better to have a single scroll of blinking and nothing more than 2 scrolls of DWKVCVEKE. I usually read even scrolls when there is only 1 in the stack, it helps to know that I don't have teleportation/blink and shouldn't risk.

[starhawk]

since I usually wait a couple of levels to mass-ID by quaffing and reading all at once.

This is wrong approach IMHO. It's better to have a single scroll of blinking and nothing more than 2 scrolls of DWKVCVEKE. I usually read even scrolls when there is only 1 in the stack, it helps to know that I don't have teleportation/blink and shouldn't risk.

Thanks, I may have to start taking this approach... I usually wait to read scrolls until i need a magic mapping to find a timed portal, or I put on a really bad cursed item and need my first RC. By that time I can usually count on whichever potion has 3+ in inventory being cure/heal, and confirm it when I stumble on Identify.

Given how many really pretty-good characters I splat before Lair (or even before Temple) I obviously need to change something in my playstyle. Perhaps this should be it.

[jejorda2]

It has been recommended (I forget who suggested it) to start reading scrolls on D4 in hopes of finding mapping and locating the temple a bit sooner. I do that unless I have curses to resolve.

I don't like reading scrolls on D1 because I don't like the higher chance of wasting recharge and enchant weapon. Of course, I often die with a surplus of those (and of wand charges), so I should probably read everything as I find it.