Felid monk of Chei, 98 EV (actual EV, no potions, didn't switch in EV rings, no EV on jewelry at all):
http://crawl.akrasiac.org/rawdata/Tason ... 204201.txtIn fairness, I did find guardian spirit early on, and I wore a ring of magical power pretty much all game for the max HP...but...
Shit's OP yo. Played a felid monk of Chei, trained unarmed/dodging early on, got EV to around 30-35 and started to feel 'safe'. By lair I had around 45, and was able to "tank" hydras pretty safely, I clawed down each one I came across. Around the time I hit 50 EV, I turned off dodging to work on magic and invocations. Got statue form online, and eventually worked on dodging for the late game, reaching 98 EV by the end.
Oh, I clawed Gloorx Vloq at level 24 because I accidentally went into pan when I meant to just go down to depths:4. Pan wasn't even that hard for this character, before level 27. Still felt risky, but it was survivable.
I do think the old stepdown was too much and I'd love to see players be able to get higher EV...But maybe start the stepdown somewhere around 50. I'm not sure we need 90 EV, even if they're felids of Chei.
Monster notes: Orbs of fire still can hit you with fireball, so they're still somewhat threatening. But they miss with bolts of fire quite often, which really lowers their overall dps. Webs in spider form were very noticeable as they half your EV, so I went from around 52 to 27. Entropy weavers were trivial because I didn't depend on my AC to begin with; one took me from 3 ac to -1, and I'm not sure they ever actually hit me to take advantage of it. Clouds, smites, and anything else that doesn't check EV remain big threats.